98 
COTTON 
thing like fifteen bushels of seed at picking time. 
This quantity in turn will give selected seed for 
fifteen acres the following year. 
Continue to select one hundred of the choicest 
bolls each year for your seed plot of the succeeding 
year. ° 
Such a system of seed selection should be 
perpetually practised by planters throughout the 
South, and should of course improve the seed stock 
to a high degree, greatly increasing the productive- 
ness and greatly accentuating all the desirable 
qualities of the plant. 
THE SEED PLOT 
Locate your seed plot on a soil offering conditions 
similar to those of the rest of your cotton area. To 
locate your plot on a sandy 'soil, for example, if 
the main crop is to be grown on a rich, heavy, 
clay formation, would be manifest folly. 
Select a type of soil, then, like that on which the 
general crop is to be cultivated, but enrich it; 
for you will get the best and most vigorous seed 
from plants well nurtured and grown under most 
favorable conditions. You will make no mistake 
in fertilizing well and following with thorough 
cultivation throughout the growing season. 
STUDY INDIVIDUAL PLANTS 
By a study of individual plants you can carry 
the selection of your cotton still further. No two 
plants are alike in every detail. They vary in a 
hundred and one ways. They vary in their 
ability to transmit superior qualities to their 
progeny. And this is an important consideration. 
