ON TEXTILE PLANTS 



scientific methods to the betterment of their crop. 



The method that has produced excellent results 

 is one that has been illustrated over and over in 

 connection with one after another of my experi- 

 ments in plant development. 



It consists essentially in selecting for seed the 

 products of plants that are observed to be more 

 productive than their fellows, and which at the 

 same time produce cotton fiber of superior quality. 



With the cotton, as with other plants, it does 

 not at all suffice to select merely the individual 

 bolls that chance, through some nutritional advant- 

 age, to grow to large size. It is necessary to con- 

 sider the plant itself and its total product as well 

 as the average quality of that product. We have 

 seen that, under precisely similar conditions, dif- 

 ferent individual plants of every species show a 

 more or less wide range of variation as to size and 

 productivity, resistance to disease, and other 

 qualities. 



This variation is quite as notable among cotton 

 plants, even of the most fixed varieties, as among 

 most other cultivated plants. 



The practical method employed by the most 

 intelligent cotton raisers is to send trusted 

 employes through the fields to select the plants 

 the product of which is to be saved for seed. The 

 seed cotton thus obtained is ginned separately, and 



[115J 



