Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1921-02-27
COTTON GROWERS
ARE TOGET BACK ON
PURE SEED BASIS

me executive committee of the Mar
lcopa County Farm bureau has re-
centiy announced a plan of seed GER
ufication whereby every cotton planter
can get seed for the 1921 planting
season which is as good az has ever
peen produced. The executive COM
mittee months ago appointed a pure
SEED committee to safeguard the in
tereSs of the cotton growers. This
com4nieeee worked in close touch with
DR.. t. III. Kearney of the United States
department of agriculture founder of
Pima cotton, and as result located
the purest fields I'm the valley and
after inspection certified to the purity
OF those fields which were considered
desirable TO save.
The acid test the fields, from which
planting seed was taken, had to pass
included the following requirements:
!. The fields were planted with the
increase of the government rogued
seed Of 1918.
2 No replanting with oil mill seed
was made.
3. The fields were located in largo
blocks where no other seed had been
planted.
g. No evidence of off-tvp. plants.
and particularly upland cotton plants
was found in any of the fields for GER
tificatfon
Provisions were made and carried
our by which all the seed for certifi-
carton was ginned and delinted in
plants which handled only seed of this
standard
The term Government rogued" is
rather imperfectly understood. though
mas been used and explained many
times since the Introduction of Amer
ican Egyptian cotton. Beginning with
the first commercial introduction of
fima cotton, DIR. Kearney has annually
selected a field of. 90 to so acres from
winch every plant which was not pure
Pima was removed
RMS involves inspection annually OF
over million individual plants 70,
minute details. many of which can moi
De distinctly seen by a good practica
grower even when they are pointed out
Inis ultra technical work on the par
or Dr. kearney has maintained fol
ten years a commercial supply of Pima
cotton. which is Identical in character:
with the original Pima plant produced
In 1910. 1t has proven conclusiveIy thu
Pima cotton seed win not run ont
II given a chance to maintain itself
Dr. kearney's explanation is substan.
tally as follows:
In Pima cotton, which by virtue O.
its origin breeds as true to type as on,
could expect to find. there are con.
ly arising characteristics in GER
tam plants which are different from
the true type and which, If these off
type plants were isolated, would Civ,
rise to many new varieties, good bat
and indifferent. Furthermore, If an,
other variety were grown with Pima
regardless of the excellence of the va
riety. the resultant intermingIinl
would break UP into all sorts of cotto1
in the course of few seasons. Their,
Is only one way to keep Pima cottol
up to standard and that is to per
petuate onl you're Pima in our see,
fields.
or course, in our work at the SAGA
ton experiment station we are con
stantly on the lookout for something
better. but the place to find and per
petuate something better" is on al
isolated experiment station and not ii
seed fields of Pima cotton. We hav
sufficient couse to believe that If w
continue to grow Pima cotton and re
vert each year to a commercial see,
supply developed from seed not NOR
than three years after rogueing tn
Pima cotton of the next generation vii
be Just as good, and in fact identica
with our own Pima, provided the hu
man element which enters into rogue
ing our cotton and into proper distrib
ution of the increased seed from rogue
cotton performs it's functions with tn
high degree of accuracy necessary"
The farm bureau seed committe
wish the present plan of certificatio
expressly understood, for it must be tn
basis of a permanent plan which, i
all probability can be made surer an
even more effective. In the presen
case the seed committee is certifyin
to the fact that the fields that the
have inspected with a view to the
utilization for seed purposes are, to tn
best of their knowledge and belief, pun
Pima cotton, and that they have foun