H. G. Hastings & Co., Seedsmen, Atlanta, Georgia. 
5 
KEEPING BOOKS ON COTTON PLANTS 
Most of you have heard the advice frequently passed out to farm- 
ers (and it’s good advice) to keep books on their farm operations 
so that they may know which of their crops pay and which don’t. 
Our test and breeding-ground work on cotton and other crops 
presents a sure enough bookkeeping job. 
First, is the variety test work. Last year over 60 varieties were 
planted separately. Records were kept on each variety from start 
to finish, showing everything that could possibly be shown. Time 
of planting, per cent of stand, character of growth, first forms, of 
bloom and open bolls, number of bolls to plant on specified dates, 
percentage of diseased bolls, motes to boll, length, strength and 
percentage of lint and in the end the yield per acre. 
Next to the general variety test and great deal more important 
from the plant breeders’ standpoint was 683 separate and distinct 
plots of cotton ranging from a half acre each down to a few short 
row’s. These 683 separate plots were all grown from seed selections 
and hybrids that have been made or produced on our own grounds. 
These plots show some mighty interesting plants of cotton, the 
foundation of future varieties. 
The same bookkeeping methods used on the general variety tests 
apply to each one of the 683 different plots but w’ith even more 
detail, the records starting with the earliest planting and ending 
when the last lock is ginned. 
Last and not least is the keeping of books or records on the in- 
dividual or single plants. Every year Mr. Starr makes from 2,000 
to 2,500 selections of single plants that, so far as the eye car deter- 
mine, give promise of being superior. Each one of these plants is 
specially tagged during the growing season, and records as to its 
growth and production kept. When the bolls are open the product 
of each plant is picked and bagged separately. During the winter 
months the product of these single plants is ginned separately, 
records being kept of percentage of seed and lint. The length of 
lint is measured and later its strength is tested on a costly and 
delicate machine made for that purpose. On these single plants 
records are kept on 41 different points on each one. 
This bookkeeping on cotton on the large scale we conduct our 
plant-breeding work is a large job but from these records we know 
all there is to be known about any one variety, or special selection 
of a variety or about these individual plants. 
A S]\L4LL. SECTION OF OUR COTTON VARIETY TESTS ON 
This “keeping books” on cotton and other plants is a large and 
expensive job but we do not shirk it for it is the only way that we 
can get exact knowledge of the cotton plant. We often put more 
bookkeeping or written records on a single cotton plant than most 
farmers do on the work of their entire farm in a year. 
This brings on the question of why we do it. Just this. Through 
these records we know exactly what we have ourselves and what we 
have to send you. 
The United States Department of Agriculture through its Farm 
Demonstration Work and Boys’ Corn Clubs in the South is doing a 
magnificent work for better farming. One of its strongest points is 
teaching the importance of seed selection. 
This IS important as far as it goes but it does not and cannot go 
THE HASTINGS FARM— EARLY VARIETIES ON RIGHT 
half way because no individual farmer has, or can afford to have, 
the right facilities to do this vitally important work right. 
Above we spoke of making from 2.000 to 2,500 single plant selec- 
tions each year, the seed cotton from each plant being kept and 
ginned separately. Now here is the point. These 2,500 plants were 
selected out of hundreds of thousands, because, so far as the eye of 
our cotton expert could see, they were superior plants, just the sort 
of plants you would pick out for planting, but less than 500 of 
them proved worth keeping. 
Don’t misunderstand us. The selection of seed by a farmer in his 
field is not valueless. It’s a big improvement over the old way of 
planting “run of the gin” seed but it isn’t one-half as effective as 
the purchase of seed from us where every attention is given to seed- 
breeding by experts who are devoting a lifetime to this great work. 
