The second-generation selections should be picked separately, as in the case of the first generation selections, and ginned separately, the seed being preserved to plant a breeding patch the next or third year.
Securing select seed for general planting.—To secure select seed for planting a general crop, take intelligent pickers and train them to recog nize a good, productive plant. Then, after having selected and marked the best plants in the breed ing patch, send these pickers over the breeding patch, instructing them to pick all of the seed from the productive plants that are not marked as special selects. Use this seed to plant a general crop. If this seed is not sufficient to plant a general crop, plant what you can with it, in what may be termed a multiplication plot, and from this multi plication plot have the select pickers pick suffi cient seed, as above indicated, to plant a general crop the ensuing year.
Continuing the selection.—In the third year, the individual selections made the second year should be planted in a special breeding patch, such as described for planting the first-year selections, and the planting should be made in the same way, using the " plant-to-row " method. The individual selections should be made in the same way as in the first and second years, when the progenies of the second-year selections have reached fruiting condition.
In the succeeding years, the same method should be pursued, forming, as will be seen, a continuous method of pedigree selection. Each year, also, second choice seed should be taken from the breeding patch to furnish seed to plant a larger multiplication plot, from which in turn choice seed can be taken to plant a general crop.
Literature.
The following are some of the principal works treating on cotton: Structure of the Cotton Fibre in its Relation to Technical Applications, F. H. Bow man, Second Edition, Manchester, 1881 ; Cotton: Its Uses, Varieties, Fibre Structure, Cultivation, etc., C. P. Brooks, New York, 1898 ; Cotton : Its Cultivation, Marketing, Manufacture, etc., C. W. Burkett, New York, Doubleday, Page & Co., 1906 ; The Cotton Plant : Its History, Botany, Chemistry, Culture, Enemies and Uses, United States Depart ment of Agriculture, Office of Experiment Stations, Bulletin No. 33, Washington, 1896, 433 pages ; Notes on Egyptian Agriculture, Geo. P. Foaden, United States Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry, Bulletin No. 62 ; Lyman, Cotton Planters' Manual ; Cotton Facts, A. B. Shepperson, New York ; Cotton and Cotton Oil, Cotton Plant ing, Cultivation, Harvesting, etc., D. A. Tompkins, Charlotte, North Carolina, 1901, two vols. ; Trans actions, New England Cotton Manufacturers' Asso ciation, Waltham, Mass. (issued annually); The Cost of Cotton Production, J. W. Watkins, United States Department of Agriculture, Division of Statistics, Bulletin No. 16 ; Watt, Dictionary of
Economic Plants ; Improvement of Cotton by Seed Selection, H. J. Webber, United States Depart ment of Agriculture, Yearbook, 1902 ; Growing of Long-Staple Upland Cotton, H. J. Webber, United States Department of Agriculture, Year book, 1904; Story of the Cotton Plant, Frederick Wilkinson, D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1902. In addition, bulletins issued by the agricultural experiment stations in the cotton-growing states, give much valuable advice on specific phases of the subject. Perhaps the best published information on cotton soils is the record of the work done by Hilgard, found in the Report of the Tenth Census, Vols. V and VI.
Practical Suggestions on Cotton-Growing.
The following comments on cotton culture are drawn from the author's personal experience, mostly in Mississippi and Louisiana. The advice will necessarily need to be modified somewhat for other regions and conditions.
Fertilizers.—Cotton does not make excessive de mands on the soil, but it is a clean-culture crop, and adds little humus to the soil, so that its con tinued growth will wear out even the richest delta lands. Crop rotation, with the growing of a legume crop after the small grain and in the corn, is the most satisfactory way of rejuvenating the soil. But all lands will be benefited by the addition of some fertilizer. It hastens maturity on bottom lands, and increases the yield on poor uplands. Many farmers produce 500 to 800 pounds, and more, of lint per acre, while the average yield is less than 200 pounds per acre. It is evident that many growers are doing a losing business. The reason is not hard to find, when we consider that cotton is grown on the same land continuously without fertilizers or other means of supplying the constant drain. The writer averages 350 pounds of lint per acre on large areas of hill land, with the application of 200 pounds of commercial fertilizer per acre in drills under the cotton. It has been his experience that with medium prepa ration and culture, about 250 pounds of commercial fertilizer per acre is the most profitable quantity to apply. A greater quantity will frequently pro duce a greater yield, but it is doubtful whether it is economy. In the more sterile soils in some parts of the eastern states, however, from 600 to 1000 pounds of fertilizer is frequently used per acre with profit. On fresh lands, and on lands on which leguminous crops have been grown, acid phosphate alone gives best results. On medium to poor soils, cottonseed-meal and acid phosphate mixed equally gives splendid results. Potash does not give bene ficial results as a cotton fertilizer in Mississippi or Louisiana, as is shown by experiments. Notwith standing this fact, 90 per cent of all fertilizer sold in these states contains potash.