The Savannah morning news., 1902-01-27
Cotton GroNving-The Need for Bet
ter Seed.

We doubt very much If there ever
was time in the history of cotton Gull
ture in this country when a poorer
quality of seeds for making the crop
was in more general use than is the
case at this time. There is no need to
wonder why the yield per acre is stead
| lily though Slightly on the decrease
year by year.
While 1t may be allowed that the i'm
provement of the soil through long
culture is the main reason why soil
once yielding bale to the acre, fell to
half bale in time, and then to one
third, and on down to one-fourth. yea
to one-fifth in seasons when the
weather proves very unfavor a BILE to the
| crop. The exhaustion of the humus
from the soil and the consequent ina
bility of the soil to furnish the essen
tial mineral elements in a state of SOL
utility is the prime reason for dimin-
| ished crops
But only secondary to this reason is
another, little regarded by the large
mass of cotton growers, and that is the
marked inferiorlty of the seeds used at
this time. The average farmer pays no
attention Whatever to the saving Of
! SEEDS of first quality, with which to
! plant the ensuing crop.
Except with only a few intelligent
farmers here and there, there is no re-
gard Whatever for this important mat
ter. The seeds used for planting the
current crop is more than likely to be
! those from the very last picking. the
larger number of which come from i'm
mature and imperfect. bols. In most
cases the seeds are carelessly thrown
INTO piles open to the influences
OF the weather, absorbing moisture dur
ing long speels of rainy weather. BY
the time planting time comes the germs
of the seeds have become more or less
| impaired. Even if such seeds devotion
an average looking plant by July it is
not improbable that the plant is sus-
ceptible to disease far, beyond what a
normal healthy plant. raised from a
perfect seed, would have. From an OBJ
serVation and experience of nearly
forty years, we have been led to very
| positive opinions as to the results of
using seeds of an inferior quality The
average farmer oftener than not over
locks the main cause of a certain fall
ute, He does not understand why his
cotton is affected with root rot" or
rust" or mildew," when other cotton
near by may be free from disease.
Truly in the domain of Nature there
are many wheels within wheels. -
There are causes and causes, and
there are effects and effects. Some
times we are apt to take the effect
f2r the cause. We see lice upon our
plants, and lacking knowledge. would
say that they (the lice) were the
cause of the wilted condition of the
plant. In that we would err They
are an effect. The lice appeared upon
the plant because of it's diseased CON
dition, its wilted condition attestine
the disease. An imperfect seed was
probably the cause of the disease and
its effect-the lice. We have no doubt
many. if not most OF the diseases that
attack the growing cotton plant as well
as others could be traced to some de-
feet in the germ of the seed.
We should either save our seeds in
fun accordance with the laws and de-
mandS of Nature or we should be will
| ing to pay some one to do it for us.
We can do it we'll enough, ourselves if
we would only realize how necessary
1t is, but lacking the energy, etc, to
do 1t, we should not be unwilling to
pay fair price to some one possessing
the necessary qualities to do this i'm
portant work for us.
| AT the rate we are going in this neg
| lect of one of the great essentials of
! plant life and growth it will not he
many more tens of years before our
royal fibre plant will have been more
nXed In lts naDlt or sterility or fruit
lessness, aspiring rather to be a plant
noted for it's beauty of foliage-a leaf
plant, so to speak, than for its abund-
ant bolls bursting with snowy fiber. 1t
may approach this condition more
closely and more rapidly than we may
be inclined to suspect.
Unfortunately, so much of cotton
growing is carried on by a class so ig-
norant, so unreachable with suggestion,
| there is little than can be done in
claiming for this matter the serious
consideration that 1t really deserves
But there are still some white farmers
of intelligence who may take the sug-
gestion to heart and by so doing help
themselves, and these may prove indi-
| rectly helpful to others in their re-
| spective neighborhoods by saving and
selling seeds of first quality, saved in
accordance with natural laws. More
| of this at another time