OXE-VARIETY COTTOX COMMUNITIES. 7 
superior strains have been developed, and the methods of breeding 
have been improved until they are far in advance of methods of utili- 
zation of varieties. But in spite of the value of good varieties being 
recognized, the need of special precautions for large-scale production 
of superior fiber has received very little consideration. Instead of 
select, uniform stocks being isolated and preserved by continued 
selection, new varieties usually are mongrelized and begin to " run 
out " as soon as they are planted on a commercial scale. While this 
mongrelizing system is followed it is impossible to keep varieties uni- 
form or to develop large stocks of pure seed. The system of mixed- 
variety production has been tested on an enormous scale and for a 
long period of years and leaves no doubt of its adverse effects. Xo 
general or complete utilization of superior varieties seems possible 
under the present s} ,, stem of miscellaneous planting of different sorts. 
Though it seemed reasonable to suppose that commercial seed firms 
would maintain the selection of superior stocks and meet the public 
demand for pure seed, dealers have the same difficulties as the farmers 
themselves in maintaining the production of pure seed. Most of the 
commercial seed is raised by farmers without special isolation of the 
fields and without precautions of separate ginning. Dealers have no 
way to get large quantities of pure seed unless they deal with one- 
variety communities or go into cotton farming on a large scale, in 
addition to conducting their business as seed merchants. To be effec- 
tive for keeping seed pure the scale of farming must be large enough 
to provide isolation and separate ginning, or. in other words, to form 
a separate cotton community for producing the seed supplies of each 
variety handled, which for most seedsmen is out of the question. 
Efforts that some of the more enterprising seed firms have made 
to supply themselves with high-quality seed have been abandoned, 
because no way was found to develop and maintain uniform stocks, 
even when very desirable novelties had been originated. Without 
doubt, reliable dealers will buy their stocks of seed from one-variety 
communities as soon as there is a sufficient volume of production of 
pure seed to meet the commercial demand. In the early stages of 
development of a new variety or select strain, general distribution, 
by sale or otherwise, is undesirable, because most of the seed that is 
sent out in small quantities is lost by becoming mixed with other 
varieties. Production of the pure seed on a practical scale is essen- 
tial, whether handled later through commercial seed firms or from 
one community to another. 
DISTRIBUTION OF NEW VARIETIES INEFFECTIVE. 
When systematic cotton breeding was first undertaken by the 
United States Department of Agriculture, it was supposed that 
