6 
and handling the crop are as necessary as improved varieties. The 
special biological problems of breeding and maintaining varieties 
have been solved, but not the general agronomic and economic prob- 
lems of providing for the utilization of varieties. Xot only the facts 
regarding varieties and textile qualities of different kinds of fiber 
need to be investigated by the manufacturers, but also the produc- 
tion and handling of the crop, the whole field of activity that lies 
between the breeding of varieties and the uses of cotton goods by 
the consuming public. For lack of such knowledge the manufac- 
turers are unable to take a really practical and constructive interest 
in the development of the cotton industry as a whole and are unable 
to protect themselves against the adverse tendencies of the commer- 
cial system. Thus there is great need of closer study by manufac- 
turers of the underlying commercial and agricultural factors that de- 
termine the production of good or poor fiber. 2 
SUPERIOR VARIETIES NOT UTILIZED. 
No other plant product figures in our industrial civilization more 
largely than cotton, and the need of uniformity is greater with cotton 
than with any other crop. Fiber that is not uniform does not spin 
well nor make strong, durable fabrics. More labor is required to use 
inferior fiber, because the threads break more frequently in spinning 
and weaving. If the fiber is of good quality all the work of produc- 
ing and manufacturing cotton is done to better advantage and the 
public is served with better goods. It seems not improbable that 
the value for textile purposes of most of the cotton grown in the 
United States could be at least doubled by using superior varieties, 
but such utilization of varieties is not possible without adequate 
supplies of pure seed, which are not maintained under the present 
system of production. 
The need of improving the cotton crop is being recognized in all 
the principal regions of production. Experiment stations in dif- 
ferent parts of the world are engaged in the breeding or testing of 
varieties of cotton and devising improved cultural methods. Each 
of the cotton-growing regions has its own series of diverse forms 
and variations to study, in addition to efforts in many countries to 
introduce foreign kinds and adapt them to the local conditions. 
Xevertheless, only a very limited application of the results of breed- 
ing investigations is to be expected, either in the United States or in 
other cotton-growing regions, unless the organization of the industry 
can be improved so that superior varieties can be utilized. 
Kich possibilities of improvement have been shown in the species 
and varieties of cotton that have been studied intensively. Many 
2 Cook. O. F. Commercial parasitism in the cotton industry. In Natuiv, v. 105, no. 
2644, p. 548-549. 
