april — sept. 1859.] Proceedings. 



227 



Orleans" varieties. In conducting the operation, the same plan 

 should be adopted and the same precautions observed that are 

 taken in crossing valuable flowers and fruits, with such signal suc- 

 cess, in Europe. An intelligent, active and conscientious person 

 should be employed, who would give the experiment a fair trial, for 

 if the result should be the obtaining a variety of cotton — hardy, 

 prolific and of the superior staple, the benefit would be almost 

 incalculable, whilst if the experiment should not end in so favour- 

 able a manner as could be desired, a problem of very great inter- 

 est would have been solved, as to the affinity the several varieties 

 of cotton bear to one another. 



The following is the plan I should recommend being adopted in 

 carrying out the experiment. 



A moderate number of each of the several varieties of superior 

 Cotton should be planted and carefully cultivated, each kind being 

 kept separate. The Native Cotton should be planted in a certain 

 number of rows, and of so many of these rows all the plants should 

 have their flowers crossed by one description of superior Cotton ; — 

 the plants of so many other rows by another description of superior 

 Cotton, and so on : — and each flower, when crossed, might be 

 marked by a small piece of coloured twine being tied to its stalk. 



The ripe seeds obtained from these crossed flowers should be 

 sown in distinct patches, — that is to say — those resulting from 

 the cross with the " Bourbon" in one place, those from the " New 

 Orleans" in another, and so on for the rest. 



When the plants raised from these seeds come into bearing, a 

 great diversity would probably be exhibited by them, respectively, 

 as regards healthy appearance, prolificness and the quality of the 

 staple. The inferior ones should be pulled up and thrown away, 

 and the better kinds retained and numbered, and their comparative 

 qualities well examined and recorded. 



If it should be found that real progress had been made towards 

 improvement of the Native Cotton, the system of crossing might be 

 still further carried on, using the plants of the already improved 

 stock, instead of those of the . original Native kind, for crossing 

 upon : and this operation might be carried on for several genera- 



