The Leader, enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1915-1921, 1916-08-02
INCREASE COTTON YIELD =
BY BREEDING GOOD SEED
State Department Of Entomology VIII Help Farmers
Breed Seed To Make Better Crops

Atlanta Ga.-The time has come in
Georgia when successful cotton pro-
auction demands careful and persist
ent attention to the breeding of the
highest type of seed, says the State
Board of Entomology in bulletin on
cotton breeding shortly to be issued
for the information and advantages of
farmers of this state.
Good seed, the department points
out, is not only imperative in planting
to meet boil weevil conditions, but to
produce strains that are resistant to
the many destructive diseases to
which the cotton plant is subject in
different sections of the state.
For the benefit of Georgia's cotton
growers the department employs a
number of experts in cotton breeding,
whose entire time is given to this
work Among them are Ira W. Will
liams and c. A. McLendon, both of
whom have furnished valuable data
for the bulletin soon to be issued.
These experts are at the service of
the farmer upon request, whenever he
may desire their assistance in the mat
ter of producing a higher and stronger
type of seed
Every farmer should develop his
own cotton seed both to meet boil wee
vii conditions and to resist disease.
The reason for this is, as Mr. Nc
Tendon points out, that the cotton
plant is the product of two forces,
environment and heredity. Climatic
and soil conditions and methods of cuI-
ture vary in different sections there
fore, the best seed for particular
locality is produced in that locality it.
self. AS to heredity, selection be-
comes comparatively easy matter,
because it involves simply the choice
from year to year of the seed from
the plant or plants which grow the
strongest, mature the earliest and man
ifest the greatest degree of resistance
to- black root or wilt disease and 9th
er diseases attacking the plaAt.
For Weevil Conditions
Good ''pedigreed" seed locally adapt
ed is absolutely essential, MIR. Will
liams points out, if weevil infestation
is very great. By pedigreed seed is
meant that which extends back for a
number of years and which has been
developed as rapidly as possible from
a single stalk.
THE proper method is to select say
fifty stalks of the variety considered
hncf toIa nj thnun Oh oil 10,
ty different rows; examine carefully
and study the different rows, and Sc
Iect the most desirable and most pro
ductive row. Increase this row into a
block and from the block into as large
an area as possible. If this large area
does not plant the entire field, in
crease again the next year. Select the
individual stalks each year from rows
or blocks of previous selection and re
peat the method every year. BY this
means the farmer will have pedigreeC
seed coming as close back as possible
from one stalk. and continuing this
process from year to year, the perioC
OF breeding will ultimately extenC
through long number of years.
III farmer is not willing to 60 tC
the trouble OF developing his seed BY
this method. he should purchase one OF
more bushels of seed each year from
some man near him who does do this
and from such seed plant his entire
crop"
Adapted To Locality
The State Board of Entomology has
&ound by numerous tests that a va
riety Of cotton good in one section o.
the state, is failure in another. Tha
Is why 1t Is most important to ge,
q variety as well bred as possible thai
- best adapted to the locality. The
seed chosen should be from stalks
which are absolutely free from AM
signs OF wilt or root knot. After
wilt resistant variety is secured. the
farmer should see to 1t that his cottor
IL free from other diseases. II he II
compelled to lose some cotton from
the boil weevil, he can not afford t.
lose 1t from any other cause. Amonl
the most destructive of these diseases
are angular leaf spot. or black arm.
as II Is known by sea island planters
which is q germ disease, and anthrac
nose, a fungus disease, which is mex
TO black arm, aud, in conjunction witt
1t, the most destructive agency to thu
hollis Of cotton. These two diseases
are perpetuated in the seed, which
makes it of the highest importance tC
choose the seed from plants unaffest
ed by them.
The type of stalk TO be chosen un
der boil weevil conditions is a small
stalk with as little foliage as possible
but which should be equally productive
as larger stalks. 1t should have me
dunn sized bolls, because the greater
the number of bollS to the stalk, tn,
larger will be the number of them t,
reach maturity free from weevil at
tack. Unless a farmer is breeding To-
length Of lint and selling upon stha
basis, it is better to devote his energy
TO securing the highest per cent O
lint This is largely a matter of in
dividual decision.
What is known as mass selection
may be practiced under certain condi
tions with good results. This consist!
in going through the field and select
ing the seed from the healthiest ant
most productive stalks froG a wilt re
~ A