114. QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Juny, 1901. 
average cost of tilling the land and delivering at the ginning mill is put down at £2 
per acre; the cost of picking at $d. per ib.; the cost of ginning at 5s. per cwt., 
including the bale and delivery at ship’s side; whilst the freight to England and other 
charges come to 1d. per Ib. of lint, or a total of £6 4s. 5d. per acre. The value of 
good uplands cotton is now about 54d. per Ib., or £7 12s. 7d. for 333 1b. (the average 
lint per acre), and the value of the cotton seed (666 lb. from the acre) is put down 
a or a total of £9 7d. Putting these figures in tabulated form they are} as 
ollows :— 
Value of lint per acre, 333 Ib. at 53d... oe on tf WA) of 
Value of seed per acre, 666 1b. ... 24 ven A if 
Mkepeal 4. na ont bes a a 2D) OY 
Cost per acre— 
Tillage... 50 ote ae any} {) 
Picking ... Ao gs. an ay Bot 8 
Ginning a (1 10) 
Freight ly 
Total... oon ort: £6 4-5 
Or a profit of £2 16s. 2d. per acre. 
In dealing with these figures, I must mention that 53d. is a high price per Ib., 
quite beyond the average, which has been 4d. for the last ten years. And again, [am not 
aware that there is a market in Queensland for cotton seed, so that a grower would 
probably have to make use of his own seed to feed his stock, until in course of time — 
a demand would spring up. I gather that the price of cotton, for various reasons, is 
likely to keep up tor some time, but if a drop should take place, say, to the average 
price, the whole of the profits would vanish, and I take it that these figures are rather 
an insecure basis for working up an industry with a probability of stability. 
However, Mr. Jones, mentioned before, informs me that a better market for our 
cotton can be found in Japan, the particulars of which I have not ascertained. 
Having given some slight history of cotton in Queensland, and touched upon the 
industry as it now stands, L pass on to what really constitutes the object of this paper 
—namely, the improvement of the varieties of cotton. At the last Conference I 
prepared a paper on the ‘‘ Improvement of Sugar-cane Varieties,’’ and [ endeavoured to 
show how this should be done. I showed how beet sugar had become a factor in the 
world, how from being practically a weed the beet had advanced in such a manner as 
to cause a collapse in cane-sugar, and is now the primal cause of the languishing of 
the sugar industry in Queensland; how it had been possible to create an industry in 
beet-sugar in Europe of £50,000,000 a year, and I went on to show how this had been 
chiefly brought about by the principle of “selection,” and it will be my duty to try 
and show how this same princinle can be applied to cotton, and that if so applie 
successfully it may have the effect of once more reintroducing the cotton industry in 
Oueenaannl 
What is “Selection”? It is taking advantage of the natural capacity of all 
plants to vary in some particular, or, as Darwin puts it, it is “the law of the pre- 
servation of the favourable individual differences and variations, and the destruction 
of those which are injurious.” These variations are mostly brought about by change 
of environment, such as a removal from a higher latitude to a lower, or vice versd, 
from a rich to a poorer soil or the contrary, again from wet to a dry soil, or the other 
way about. Any of these changes may bring about a variation, and an observant man 
on the lookout for any variation will soon be rewarded; in fact, changes of some kind 
are sure to take place, inasmuch as it is seldom two plants resemble each other in all 
respects. Probably no one ever grew a dozen plants even from one pod of seed which 
all resembled each other without some difference, however slight. It will be as well 
for anyone having the intention of trying to improve any crop to have some definite 
plan to work on, to set up an ideal and not to swerve from it. 
We will therefore consider what are the main points which constitute a valuable 
crop of cotton—probably length of staple and quantity of lint per acre are the main 
points to be considered. ‘Taking length of staple first—there are several peints in 
judging the staple or fibre—not length alone. There is uniformity of length, silkiness, 
lustre, twist, and strength. All these have to be considered when judging which is 
the best form of fibre to perpetuate. Nearly every cotton plant will differ one from 
the other, some superior in one direction, some in another, and it will be by judging 
your mother plants by points, giving so many points for each degree of excellence, 
working up to your standard, that your ultimate choice will fall on that plant having 
