256 



COTTON 



COTTON 



mined readily, and all of the important factors 

 which go to produce a heavy yield thus be re- 

 corded. The preservation of such notes regarding 

 the select plants will enable a comparison to be 

 made of plants selected in various years, and will 

 greatly enhance the value and interest of the 

 work. 



Planting the selections. — The next year a field 

 should be chosen for the breeding patch which 

 has good soil, typical of the plantation and region 

 so far as possible. It is important that the soil 

 throughout the patch be of uniform quality and 

 kind, and not patchy. Do not choose the richest 

 and best land available, as this may be different 

 from the land on which the improved variety is 

 later to be grown. The breeding patch, if possible, 

 should be isolated from any other cotton-fleld a 

 distance of 500 to 1,000 feet at least. This is to 

 avoid crossing or mixing with different varieties 

 and unselected stock. Such isolation is very im- 

 portant, if we are to avoid deterioration. A good, 

 place to put the isolated patch is in the middle of 

 a corn-field, where it is surrounded for some dis- 

 tance on each side by corn. If an isolated patch 

 cannot be provided, the breeding patch as a second 

 choice may be in one corner of a cotton-field planted 

 with seed of the same variety from which the 

 selections were made the preceding year. Under 

 no conditions place the breeding patch in close 

 proximity to cotton of other varieties or kind. 

 The writer would urge that an isolated patch be 

 provided in all cases, as this insures that all ferti- 

 lization will be by pollen from plants coming from 

 select mothers. The seed from each individual 

 should be planted in a single row by itself, a plant 

 to a row, by what may be termed the " plant-to- 

 row" method. As each row is planted, a stake 

 with the number on it of the plant from which 

 the seed was taken should be placed at the end. 

 Owing to the small quantity of the seed from each 

 selection, it is best to plant it in hills about eigh- 

 teen or twenty inches apart in the rows, dropping 

 five to eight seeds in a hill. In the thinning or 

 chopping, the laborers should be instructed care- 

 fully to cut out all but the strongest and most 

 vigorous plant of each hill. Give the breeding 

 patch the same manuring and cultivation as is 

 given an ordinary crop, but remember that in all 

 cases this should be sufficient and thorough to in- 

 sure the best results. 



Examination and selection of progenies. — When 

 the cotton in the breeding patch is well open and 

 it is important that the first picking should be 

 made, go over the patch very carefully and study 

 the progenies from the different select plants. 

 It is important to determine which of the plants 

 selected the first year has transmitted to its prog- 

 eny, in the greatest degree, the good qualities of 

 high yield, good lint and other features, for 

 which it was selected. This is probably the most 

 important point to be determined in all breeding 

 work, as a select plant to be good must have 

 the property of transmitting its desirable qualities 

 to its progeny. A careful comparison of the one 

 hundred or more progenies will usually result in 



the breeder finding a few progenies. or rows which, 

 as a whole, are considerably superior to the others. 

 When these have been found, they should be 

 marked, and the individual selections for continuing 

 the breeding should be taken from these rows. 



Making the second-generation selections. — After 

 the best progenies in the breeding patch have 

 been selected, the breeder should then carefully go 

 over these progenies, plant by plant, and select 

 and mark those plants which are found to be 

 the most productive, and come up to the stan- 

 dard set for length of lint, abundance of lint to 

 seed, type of plant, and the like. The plants 

 selected should be numbered as in the year pre- 

 ceding. A good system of numbering these se- 

 lected plants, which will show their pedigree at a 

 glance, is. as follows: For example, if one of the 

 best progenies is from the original selection No. 2, 

 label the selections in this row 2-1, 2-2, 2-3, 2-4, 

 2-5, and so on, the second number after the dash 

 being the number of the individual selected in this 

 generation, while the first number, 2, is the number 

 of the original selection. In the same way, if 

 progeny 51 is one of the best, the selections made 

 from this would be numbered 51-1, 51-2, 51-3, 

 and so on. When the third-generation selections 

 are made, they should be numbered in the same 

 way, separating the generation by a dash. For 

 example, the selections made from progeny of 51- 

 1 would be labeled 51-1-1, 51-1-2, 51-1-3. 



The second-generation selections should be 

 picked separately, as in the case of the first- 

 generation selections, and ginned separately, the 

 seed being preserved to plant a breeding patch the 

 next or third year. 



Securing select seed for general planting. — To 

 secure select seed for planting a general crop, 

 take intelligent pickers and train them to recog- ■ 

 nize a good, productive plant. Then, after having 

 selected and marked the best plants in the breed- 

 ing patch, send these pickers over the breeding 

 patch, instructing them to pick all of the seeA 

 from the productive plants that are not marked as 

 special selects. Use this seed to plant a general 

 crop. If this seed is not sufficient to plant a general 

 crop, plant what you can with it, in what may be 

 termed a multiplication plot, and from this multi- 

 plication plot have the select pickers pick suffi- 

 cient seed, as above indicated, to plant a general 

 crop the ensuing year. 



Continuing the selection. — In the third year, the 

 individual selections made the second year should 

 be planted in a special breeding patch, such as 

 described for planting the first-year selections, 

 and the planting should be made in the same way, 

 using the " plant-to-row " method. The individual 

 selections should be made in the same way as in 

 the first and second years, when the progenies of 

 the second-year selections have reached fruiting 

 condition. 



In the succeeding years, the same method should 

 be pursued, forming, as will be seen, a continuous 

 method of pedigree selection. Each year, also, 

 second choice seed should be taken from the 

 breeding patch to furnish seed to plant a larger 



