The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-03-12
Director Ala. Experiment Static
Use Good Cotton Seed.


 The profit of a cotton crop depends on both quality and yield of staple. and no planter can afford to overlook either, l the quality depends on length, fine- ness. strength and color of the staple, the longer. stronger and finer always bringing much the better price. Usual ly the length commands more atten- ton than does any other one quality. and any cotton which is more than one and fourth inches in length Is sure to bring fair premium over the price bald for a shorter staple of the same grade. During the present season short staples. King, Parker and oth- CTS, have brought from nine to twelve cents. while the longer staples, like Southern Hope, have brought twelve to fourteen cents, while still longer sta ples. like Sunhower and Allen. have been in sharp demand at from sixteen to eighteen cents. Relative prices for different lengths vary somewhat with the demand, but during the last five years the prices for Sunfiower and AL len have averaged fully fifty per cent. higher than those for King and Par ker.
 Long staples require better soil, bet ter cultivation and more careful hand ling than short staples, but where each is planted under the most favorable conditions and receives the proper treatment, there is little difference in yield.
 As a rule. the long staples require a rich and fairly moist soil. and are not usually satisfactory when planted on dry. barren clay hills which will make only a light yield of short sta- pes, Long staple varieties cannot be recommended for such soils. nor would we recommend them for planters who lease all their land and do not live on the plantation. They need careful work in picking and ginning, but one can well afford to give this attention when 1t will add a half to the value of his crop.
 whatever length of staple may be preferred, the seed should be the very best obtainable and the seed brought from public gin Is usually the poor est obtainable. It Is commonly from the last cotton which was ginned and which was the last to be picked. and is often only the tag ends of hal: dozen or more mixed lots. One cannot secure the best yield from such seed any more than he can make the best corn by using sack corn which has been shipped for feeding. Good seed Is as necessary for the one as for the other, and the additional cost for good seed Is a small matter when compared with the increased yield which 1t will make. If one secures an increase of only fifty pounds per acre, or premium of one cent per pound for his crop, he will more than double the money he will have to pay for the very best of seed.
 The breeding of good cotton seed !s as much business as is the breeding of corn or of live stock. It is not every cotton grower who has time to give his personal attention to the de- veleopment of improved varieties or to the selection of the very hest stalks from his own field, while there are others who take a pleasure in such work and who find if profitable through the sale of selected seed. The man who makes his selections each year for himself is in the right way and needs no advice from us, but the man who is not doing such work should buy the very best seed he can find re- gardless of it's cost.-Commercial Ap- peal