10 BULLETIX 1111, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Except for bringing new varieties to the attention of farmers so 
that the behavior of the plants can be observed under the local 
conditions, no purpose seems to be served by the distribution of seed 
in small quantities. 
Cooperation with organized communities to establish new cen- 
ters of seed supply apparently is the only practical way of ex- 
tending and establishing the utilization of superior varieties. Keep- 
ing small lots of seed separate in mixed-variety communities is 
more expensive of time and money than buying practical quantities 
of seed. The individual seed stocks are generally precarious and 
can be lost in many ways, through accident or carelessness. After 
several years of precaution and careful selection work in coopera- 
tion with the Department of Agriculture, a farmer in the Imperial 
Valley of California had his select stock of Durango cotton de- 
stroyed by a mistake at the gin, his carload of select seed being 
run into the common seed pile while a carload of ordinary seed 
was kept separate. Many such incidents could be recounted to 
illustrate the numberless ways of getting seed mixed, even when 
an effort is being made to preserve pure stocks, under mixed-variety 
conditions. Several other cases that also occurred in the Imperial 
Valley several years ago. in connection with the same variety of 
cotton, may be recounted. 
Clean Durango seed, purchased at fancy prices, has been planted on land 
where short-staple cotton was grown in the previous season, thus insuring 
mixture of seed and cross-pollination from the volunteer short-staple plants. 
In one case a farmer who had been cautioned against planting his new pure 
seed on land where Egyptian cotton had previously been grown, afterwards 
planted the seed on land which had been in short staple. This shows that 
the object of the precaution was completely misunderstood, for if new land 
could not be had it would have been much better to plant the Durango where 
the Egyptian cotton had been. Egyptian volunteer plants could have been 
detected and removed much more easily than the short-staple Upland volunteers. 
Several lots of Durango seed were brought in from Texas, and came from 
as many different planters. Some lots were known to have been carefully 
grown and ginned separately to avoid mixing with seed of other varieties, 
but other lots were not known to have received similar care. Special care 
had been urged in handling these different lots in order to keep the seed 
that was known to be clean separate from the other lots. In spite of repeated 
cautioning, the identity of the clean seed was made uncertain by failure to 
mark the bags or to keep them separate. The different lots were piled in the 
same warehouse and some of the piles fell down. 
In one instance, at least, seed of another variety had been distributed as 
Durango on the careless assumption that all kinds of long-staple cotton were 
much the same, so that a substitution would be only a mild form of deception. 
The seed used in this instance to replace Durango was of an inferior mixed 
stock and would give a very misleading idea of the variety. 
Unmixed Durango cotton raised in the Imperial Valley was sent to the 
public gin and the seed allowed to pass through the conveyors which had been 
used with short-staple cotton and contained a quantity of the short-staple seed. 
