COTTON 
95 
facts only. Their application must be worked out 
by each individual planter on his own individual 
farm. 
Nor is this difficult. You must put out of your 
mind the idea that seed selection is costly, or that 
it involves unusual labor. An axe that is sharp- 
ened is an improved axe; a plow that turns a deep 
furrow and pulverizes the soil in an efficient 
manner is better than one that does not; a hog that 
reaches maturity on a given amount of food in 
nine months is superior to one of any breed or 
class which uses an equal amount of food and 
requires ten months for maturity. So a particular 
cotton plant which shows a larger number of 
desirable characteristics than other stalks under the 
same soil, climate, and other influences is an 
improved specimen; and it is simple waste, as has 
been said, not to use its powers to the full extent in 
furnishing seed for the next year's crop. 
SEVEN POINTS OF IMPROVEMENT 
But what are desirable qualities to be sought? 
We discussed some of these qualities in a previous 
chapter. There are, in all, the following: 
(1) Better yield of fiber 
(2) Greater length of staple 
(3) More uniformity in length 
(4) Greater strength in fiber 
(5) Ability to resist disease 
(6) Increased yield in seed 
(7) Greater effort to make the plant at home. 
These characteristics are important, all of them. 
They must be kept in mind with every effort to 
improve the seed. 
And next we have only to remember that the 
