40 BULLETIN 1111, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
prices from distant points. Instead of holding together as com- 
munities and reserving the seed for their neighbors, to increase the 
volume of production and of seed supply in their own districts, many 
of the farmers sold their seed for the fancy prices that were offered 
from other States, and even from foreign countries. As a result, 
Meade cotton was reported in 1920 from many quarters outside of 
the Sea Island belt, including rather large acreages in Arkansas and 
Texas, and still larger in Haiti. Even in Georgia and South Carolina 
the planting of Meade cotton has not been confined to the Sea Island 
districts. Indeed, the most active interest and cooperation in main- 
taining the variety and the largest stock of pure seed thus far de- 
veloped are in southern Georgia, in a district east of Albany, in 
Worth County, between Acree and Sylvester. 
Though reports of favorable results from other States or from 
foreign countries may indicate wider possibilities of use for the 
variety, it needs to be recognized that premature expansion of acre- 
age, beyond the supply of good seed, only invites unfavorable market 
reactions from the irregular and inferior fiber that is sure to result 
from the planting of mixed seed. To the extent that crops continue 
to be grown from mixed seed, the history of the Floradora variety 
is likely to be repeated with the Meade cotton. Though Floradora 
was essentially inferior to Meade on account of the tendency to the 
" butterfly " condition, with short fibers at the base of the seeds, the 
disappointment will not be less if the Meade cotton becomes mixed 
and is allowed to degenerate. The Floradora variety was pushed 
into prominence by advertising, and seed was sold in many districts 
at high prices, but the fiber was very irregular and soon lost its place 
in the market. The danger is that buyers of Meade cotton, with 
the usual failure to discriminate, at first will accept the mixed stocks 
at the same prices as the uniform fiber, until the manufacturers find 
the mixed cotton too " wasty " and refuse to continue their purchases. 
Market reports of Meade cotton being sold much below Sea Island no 
doubt refer in many cases to inferior mixed stocks rather than to 
genuine, uniform Meade fiber. 
In addition to the assistance that has been given to growers of 
Meade cotton in connection with the experimental work of the De- 
partment of Agriculture in the breeding and local adjustment of the 
variety, organization of Meade communities is now being actively 
encouraged by the extension service of the Georgia State Agricultural 
College. Ten different communities have been selected by the State 
agents as representing the best conditions and opportunities for en- 
tering upon the production of Meade cotton. A special effort to 
plant these communities with pure seed is to be made, and assistance 
is to be given in maintaining uniformity of stocks through selection, 
with isolation of fields and separate ginning. Market facilities are 
