Scientific Agriculture. 



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each picking, a careful man should go over the field and pick the cotton from 

 each plant in sacks numbered to correspond with the numbers on the plants, 

 in order that the different pickings from the same plant may be kept together. 

 Later on, after the close of the picking season, the seed cotton from each individual 

 plant can be more carefully compared and weighed, and any of the plants 

 which are found to have fallen below the standard in production or in any 

 other important feature should be rejected. The remainder should be ginned, 

 care being taken to have the gin thoroughly cleaned out before beginning the 

 process, so that the seed from the selections will not become mixed with ordinary 

 seed. After ginning each individual plant, the seed should be carefully picked 

 up and replaced in the numbered sack, so that all of the seed from the same 

 select individual will be retained by itself. In describing the method of procedure, 

 it is much clearer to base the explanation on the assumption that only one plant is 

 chosen which will make our explanation more clear, and Avhat can be done with one 

 plant can be done with any number. Twenty-five or more are selected in practice. 



Second Year's Selection.— The seed of the individual plant selected the 

 first year is planted the second year. Each cotton plant yields from 500 to 2000 seeds, 

 and therefore 500 or more seedlings will probably be produced from each plant. When 

 these plants reach the proper stage of maturity, the entire progeny should be 

 examined to see whether the plant selected the first year has shown strong trans- 

 mitting power. If a large percentage of the progeny possesses the desired qualities 

 in a marked degree, showing that the transmitting power is fairly strong, several 

 selections of the best plants should be made from among them. If, on the other 

 hand, the transmitting power has been weak, the qualities for which the plants were 

 selected not having been transmitted, the entire progeny should be discarded. The 

 possibility of having to discard the entire offspring of a select individual is the 

 principal reason for urging that a number of selections be made the first year instead 

 of only one or two. The specially selected plants of this second generation should be 

 carefully examined with reference to the particular qualities desired, and a single 

 plant finally selected which is superior to all of the others. The seed of this indivi- 

 dual should be preserved separately, and handled exactly in the same way as the 

 selection made the first year. The seed from the remaining plants produced by the 

 single individual selected the first year should be ginned separately in order to avoid 

 mixing, and retained to plant a seed patch of about 5 acres the third year, in order 

 to obtain sufficient seed of a select strain to plant a large ar ea the fouth year. That 

 is to say from each plant selected the first year sufficient seed will be obtained to 

 plant five acres the third year. 



"Third Year's Selection.— The seed from the plant selected the second 

 year is planted by itself the third year. Just before the first picking, all of the 

 progeny should be examined, as in the second generation, to determine the strength 

 of the transmitting power. If the progeny as a whole are found to have inherited 

 the characters of the plant selected the second year, a few of the very best plants 

 should again be selected and marked as previously. These should be more carefully 

 examined, as in the above instances, and a single superior plant finally selected. 

 The seed of the remaining individuals from the same number as the one selected, 

 which will be about 500 in number, should be retained to plant a seed patch the 

 fourth year to give sufficient seed to plant a general crop the fifth year. The seed 

 obtained in the third year from the seed patch of five acres planted from the progeny 

 of the selection of the first year will this year furnish sufficient seed for the general 

 crop the fourth year. 



Fourth year's Selection. — The seed from the specially selected plant of 

 the third year is planted by itself and marked plainly to distinguish it from other 

 selections, as in the previous year. From the 500 or more seedlings resulting, a parti- 



