reeding purposes in order to maintain the character of a herd of
cattle or of a flock of sheep.

Inspection of a field of cotton shows that different plants vary as
regards productiveness, length, and character of the lint, period of
ripening, power of resistance to various pests and of withstanding
drought. A simple method of increasing the yield is that practised with
success by some growers in the States. Pickers are trained to recognize
the best plants, "that is, those most productive, earliest in ripening,
and having the largest, best formed and most numerous bolls." These
pickers go carefully over the field, usually just before the second
picking, and gather ripe cotton from the best plants only; this selected
seed cotton is ginned separately, and the seed used for sowing the next
year's crop.

A more elaborate method of selection is practised by some of the Sea
Island cotton planters in the Sea Islands, famous for the quality of
their cotton. A field is gone over carefully, and perhaps some 50 of the
best plants selected; a second examination in the field reduces these
perhaps to one half, and each plant is numbered. The cotton from each is
collected and kept separately, and at the end of the season carefully
examined and weighed, and a final selection is then made which reduces
the number to perhaps five; the cotton from each of these plants is
ginned separately and the seed preserved for sowing. The simplest
possible case in which only one plant is finally selected is illustrated
in the diagram.

1st. Year 2nd. Year 3rd. Year 4th. Year 5th. Year
+------+ +-------+ +-------+
Select (1) --->| 500 | --->|5 Acres| --->|General|
Plant |Plants| | | | Crop |
+------+ +-------+ +-------+
|
|
\/ +-------+ +-------+ +-------+
Select Plant (1) ----->| 500 | --->|5 Acres| --->|General|
| Plants| | | | Crop |
+-------+ +-------+ +-------+
|
|
\/ +-------+ +-------+
Select Plant (1) ------>| 500 | --->|5 Acres|
| Plants| | |