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II. G. Hastings & Co., Seedsmen, Atlanta, Georgia. 
Our Cotton Variety Tests 
Every spring the catalogues of the seed houses are sent out vrlth a 
good proportion of their pages devoted to various varieties of cotton and 
corn with claims made that they are ‘‘the best.” The pages of the agri¬ 
cultural papers contain dozens of advertisements of cotton seed by farm¬ 
ers and growers, most of them claiming to have a “world beater” for 
yield or lint or some other point. They all claim to have the very best 
there Is. They can’t all be correct and we believe the majority of them 
are honest in stating what they think to be true. This comes about in 
this way. The seedsmen and dealers generally pick up seed from farm¬ 
ers and cotton growers and take the grower’s word for It. Few of them 
have any personal knowledge of the crops which produced the seed they 
offer for sale. It Is no unusual thing to see advertisements in the papers 
by seedsmen and dealers asking farmers to write to them if they have any 
good cotton seed to sell. 
The farmer or grower generally acts In good faith either in selling to 
a seedsman or dealer or to his brother farmer, but as a matter of fact he 
seldom knows whether the variety of seed he has is up to reasonable 
standards or not because he has had little or no chance for compari¬ 
son with other varieties. _ 
The average production of lint is about 190 pounds per acre. A grower 
living in a section where 250 pounds or half a bale is considered a mighty 
good crop, either gets hold of or selects seed until it makes 350 or 400 
pounds per acre and thinks honestly that he has got about the best thing 
going in cotton. He sees other farmers advertising seed and proceeds to 
do likewise, and he is honest in his statements so far as he knows the 
facts. He makes representation to the seedsman or seed dealer in the 
same way. He don’t mean to mislead anyone and the dealer generally 
doesn’t care so long as the seed has a good appearance. Asa matter of 
fact neither seedsman, dealer or farmer have the Information they should 
have on this subject. 
SMALL PART OF A FIELD OF OUR COTTON-HASTINGS* TEST AND BREEDING FARMS 
Here’s the difference. On our Test and Breeding Farm in Troup 
County, Georgia, we carry on more extensive variety tests of cotton than 
is done by any state Experiment station. . 
In 1909 we devoted 14 acres to this work; in 1910 li took 65 acres and 
next year 125 acres will be devoted to this special test and plant breeding 
work. In 1910 we put 42 varieties from practically every cotton growing 
State in test. The seed was purchased from seedsmen, dealers and farm¬ 
ers at prices ranging from $1.00 to $3.00 per bushel. We give all these 
“world beaters” and “best of alls” a fair, square test, side by side with 
our own varieties under exactly the same conditions of soil, fertilizing 
and cultivation. 
We do this for our own information. If anyone has anything better 
than we have we want to know it. 
Our experience has been that at least three-fourths of the seed bought 
by us tor this test work should have been used at the oil mill Instead of 
for planting stock. Much of it was so badly mixed that we found it al¬ 
most impossible to determine what sort of a cotton it was intended for, 
still immense quantities of it are sold every year and the purchase and 
use of that kind of seed gives the buyer the Impression that there is noth¬ 
ing in this talk of “improved cotton seed.” As a matter of fact there 
isn’t in the kind of seed he has been buying. It has not been improved 
enough to notice it in the crop he can grow from it. The real trouble Is 
ignor&ncc of what really is a first-class profitable money making cotton 
for the farmer to plant. 
