MARKETING COTTONSEED FOR PLANTING PURPOSES 3 
The percentage shown as obtained direct from other farmers is 
considered commercial seed and is included in all references to com- 
mercial seed in this discussion. The quantities given in the table 
are based on the 1924 acreage and the reported average rate of seed- 
ing per acre in each State. 
SELECTION OF SEED STOCKS 
The production of planting cottonseed is so closely allied with the 
marketing of it that a line of demarcation between the two activities 
is difficult to draw. The agricultural value of the finished product 
sold depends in a large measure on the growing crop and the stock 
seed from which it is produced. The stock seed should compare 
favorably with the " ideal." It should come direct from the origina- 
tor of that particular variety, or the conditions under which it has 
been handled and propagated since leaving the originator's hands 
should conform with approval methods of growing and selecting 
cottonseed for planting purposes. 1 The dealer should maintain close 
cooperation with the grower and have direct supervision over the 
growing crop. To this end advance growing contracts may be ad- 
vantageous. Rogueing the fields one or more times prior to and dur- 
ing blossoming time is desirable in order to remove all barren, dis- 
eased, and off-type plants. 2 
Cotton from which seed is selected should be well matured and 
dry when picked. Seed from the top bolls on the plants and from 
cotton harvested late in the season, after frosts and storms, almost 
invariably is of low vitality and of poor quality for planting pur- 
poses. If a field contains a high percentage of diseased plants this 
fact immediately disqualifies it as a sourse of planting seed supply. 
Any appreciable damage by the boll weevil and pink bollworm 
renders cottonseed unfit for planting purposes even in infested ter- 
ritory, and quarantine measures prohibit the shipment and sale of 
cottonseed from infested areas into noninfested territory. 
The establishment of single variety cotton communities facilitates 
keeping seed stocks pure and acts as an incentive for the constant 
improvement of a variety by selection. The prime object of con- 
fining growing operations in a given area to a single variety is the 
production of uniform fiber for market, but it also makes available 
large surplus stocks of improved seed for commercial distribution. 3 
PREPARATION 
Cottonseed, unlike most other leading field seeds, continues to be 
sold and planted in a rather crude physical condition. Dealers seem 
to overlook the fact that commercial seed of the most carefully 
selected and improved strains can be made of still greater value from 
the farmers' point of view by the use of modern machinery in gin- 
ning, delinting, and recleaning and grading. The commercial ad- 
vantages of better preparation are measured by the agricultural 
advantages accruing to the farmer planting the better-prepared seed. 
1 DISTRIBUTION OF COTTONSEED IN 1921. TJ. S. Dept. Agr. Cir. 151. 1920. 
2 Cook, O. F. cotton selection on the farm by the characters of the stalks, 
leaves, and bolls. Bur. Plant Industry Cir. No. G6. 1910. 
3 Cook, O. F m and Martin, R. D. community cotton production. U. S. Dept. Agr. 
Farmers' Bulletin No. 1384. 1924. 
