MEADE COTTON REPLACING SEA ISLAND. 3 
cotton and not less than the short-staple cotton varieties under the 
same conditions. The price relation of Meade fiber to the fiber of 
short-staple varieties may be expected to be at least two to one in favor 
of the Meade, whatever the price of short cotton may be. 
ORIGIN OF THE MEADE VARIETY. 
The Meade cotton originated from a selection made in 1912 at 
Clarksville, Tex., in a field of a variety locally called Blackseed, or 
Black Rattler, but not the same as the varieties that have carried 
these names in other parts of the cotton belt (X£, 1918, p. 3 ; 1919, p. 
26; 1920, p. 4). 1 
The possibility of producing from this stock an Upland variety 
that would rival the Sea Island cotton in length and fineness of staple 
and at the same time possess the cultural advantages of an Upland 
cotton appealed very strongly to Mr. Rowland M. Meade, at that 
time an assistant in cotton breeding in the Bureau of Plant Industry. 
Three generations of progenies from select individuals had been 
grown, and a superior stock had been separated before the sudden 
death of Mr. Meacle in 1916. The new variety was named for Mr. 
Meade as a tribute of the personal regard of his associates and to 
commemorate his services as a plant breeder. 2 
MEADE COTTON NOT A HYBRID. 
Unauthorized statements have appeared in newspapers and agri- 
cultural journals referring to Meade cotton as a new early Sea Island 
variety or as a hybrid between the Upland and Sea Island types, 
but such accounts are erroneous. Meade cotton was not produced by 
hybridization, but is the result of the discovery and continued selec- 
tion of a superior type. It has been assumed that a variety like the 
Meade must be a hybrid because the plant is like Upland and the lint 
like Sea Island, but this reasoning is not in accord with the facts. 
Many attempts have been made to combine the superior fiber of 
the Sea Island or Egyptian types of cotton with the desirable cultural 
characters of the Upland varieties. While crossing is readily accom- 
plished and the results frequently appear promising in the first 
generation, no hybrid stock has yet been developed that was suf- 
ficiently uniform to justify commercial planting. Meade cotton is a 
separate and distinct variet}^ that combines the superior cultural fea- 
tures of the Upland type with a long and silky fiber like that of the 
Sea Island. The uniformity of Meade cotton at once places it in a 
different class from any stocks known to have a direct hybrid origin. 
1 The serial numbers (italic) in parentheses refer to "Literature cited" at the end of 
this bulletin. 
2 This paragraph and a few others are adapted with slight revision from an article 
by O. F. Cook (5). 
