2 BULLETIN 1056, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
result the average commercial cotton seed of to-day used for plant- 
ing does not measure up to a high standard. 
The seed dealer's place in the channels of trade- is justified largely 
by services rendered in improving the quality of his product. If his 
stock is no improvement over the average farmer's stock, farmers will 
continue to be more or less skeptical regarding it, on the basis of the 
increased prices usually asked. On the other hand, if commercial 
cotton seed for planting possesses superior qualities and honest efforts 
are made to prove its superiority, skepticism regarding its true value 
will not long remain in the minds of farmers. There is rarely, if 
ever, an oversupply of really superior seed and no effort should be 
spared by commercial agencies and others to make the term " plant- 
ing cotton seed " stand for something of infinitely greater agricultural 
value than the average cotton seed now used for planting, and thereby 
to render a distinct service to the cotton-growing industry. 
The ideal planting cotton seed may be described as seed selected 
from cotton that is true to type and pure of variety ; well matured ; 
free from disease and insects or insect injury; delinted; recleaned 
and graded ; and with a minimum germination of 88 per cent, By 
pointing out some of the fundamental points in selecting, improved 
methods of preparing and storing, and ways of overcoming or elimi- 
nating some of the existing unfair and unscrupulous practices in sell- 
ing planting cotton seed, all classes of dealers may be aided in making 
their product approach more closely the ideal and farmers may be 
guided in determining its intrinsic value when making purchases. 
SOURCES OF SUPPLY. 
The percentage of the total planting requirement of cotton seed 
that is sold commercially varies from year to year and is influenced 
largely by one or more of the following factors: (1) Extent of boll 
weevil and pink boll Worm injury and expansion of the area in- 
fested, which creates an abnormal demand for seed of early maturing 
varieties grown in noninfested territory; (2) excessive and contin- 
ued rains during the harvest period, adversely affecting the germina- 
tion; (3) unfavorable weather conditions during the planting sea- 
son, necessitating more or less replanting ; (4) general prosperity of 
the cotton farmer; and (5) spasmodic changes in the acreage. The 
percentage obtained by farmers from commercial sources also varies 
greatly in the several cotton-producing States, as shown in Table 1 : 
