H. Lr. LU., jiLusmurrrf^mmwr 
MR. D. S. STARR, OUR EXPERT COTTON BREEDER, MAKING SELECTIONS ON THE HASTINGS' FARM 
We want to give our Mr. Starr full credit for the splendid work he Is 
doing In his special department of breeding work. He is a nati ve Geor¬ 
gian, a man who took special training in this particular work before he 
took it up as a life profession. He is thoroughly in love with his work 
and carries to it an enthusiasm that Is necessary when one does best work 
and gets results that count. It is the earnest, enthusiastic workers that 
accomplish things in this world, and Mr. Starr is one ofthosp earnest men 
that put their lives into their work. We consider ourselv^ fortunate in 
having him with us, for toe results he has accomplished in the years en¬ 
gaged in this work have Been more than we expected. 
There are “thief cotton plants that steal in other ways than shown 
on page 8, and it is partof Mr. Starr’s work to detect them in our crops. 
The question of lint per cent, is most Important. Cotton growers want 
lint. We find that lint per cent, varies from 17 to 49 per cent. Among 
cotton growers is the old calculation that “cotton thirds Itself.’’ Some 
plants do a great deal better than this, others much worse. It’s a part of 
Mr. Starr’s work to get rid of these low per cent, plants so that nothing 
but paying plants in every respect are In our customers’ fields. 
'Without going into detail as to all the points of this breeding work on 
cotton, there are four things we are constantly working on. Increase in 
yield per acre; Increase in per cent, of llntto seed; better quality, length 
and strength of staple: and last, but not least, the production of varieties 
of cotton that enable our friends in boll weevil districts to make paying 
cotton crops in spite of the weevil. We have no boll weevil in Georgiaas 
yet, but we are ready for him when he comes, for we have varieties now 
making a bale per acre and over iu the worst BpU WcevU (llStriClS OC 
LyuiaJftna, Texas aoU Mississippi 
OUR COTTON BREEDING WORK 
Our lllustraUpn below shows our Mr. D. S. Starr making his seed selec¬ 
tions from Indivmual or single plants. You will note the small bags to 
the left of the roadway. Each bag contains such bolls from single plants 
as Mr. Starr has selected as being worth saving. 
M l through the growing season Mr. Starr has been watching the 
ng and test fields closely, practically eating and sleeping with the 
crop from the time the seed is planted until the last lock is picked. 
Every time he sees a plant giving evidence of marked superiority, he 
tags that plant. These marked plants are examined frequently and notes 
made. These observations and records are kept up until the see 1 cotton 
is picked. The picking from these specially marked plants is al 1 done by 
Mr. Starr himself and no cotton picker is allowed in these breed! ng fields 
until Mr. Starr completes his selection work. 
In all real work in plant-breeding we have to start with single plants. 
As stated on a previous page, 2,000 to 2,500 of these plant selections are 
made each lyear. After the field selection has been made of superior 
plants, that is superior so far as an expert eye can tell, the real inside, ex¬ 
pert work begins. 
Each one of these plants is handled separately. The seed cotton from 
each is ginned on a special gin made for this purpose. The seed cotton 
from each plant is examined carefully to note the number of motes to 
boll, length of lint and strength of fibre and many other special points. 
Before ginning, the seed cotton is carefully weighed; the lint and seed are 
again weighed separately after ginning, on delicate scales made for this 
purpose. 
On the previous page we have stated that, so far as cotton Is con¬ 
cerned, any system of seed selection dependent on the eye alone won’t 
produce desired results. The best evidence of this Is the fact that last 
year Mr. Starr threw out four-fifths of the selections he had made. 
In his ginning tests alone he found the lint per cent, varying all the 
way from 17 per cent., about 1-6, to 49 per cent., almost even weight of seed 
and lint. These tests also show that in strength of lint some plants pro¬ 
duce lint fully twice as strong as others. The difference In number of 
motes to the boll often makes a difference of luto 15 per cent. In the yield 
per acre. Resistance to disease often makes as high as 25 per cent, differ- 
erce in the yield. There are a dozen and one things which have their ef¬ 
fect on both quality and quantity, and what Is true of cotton Is, In greater 
or less degree, true of all our other Southern crops. 
