if for
any reason the selection is interrupted there is a general and rapid
decline in quality."

When selection is being made for several characters at the same time,
and also in hybridization experiments, where it is important to have
full records of the characters of individual plants and their progeny,
"score cards," such as are used in judging stock, with a scale of
points, are used.

The improvements desired in cotton vary to some degree in different
countries, according to the present character of the plants, climatic
conditions, the chief pests, special market requirements, and other
circumstances. Amongst the more important desiderata are:--

1. Increased Yield.

2. Increase in Length of Lint.--Webber records the case of Stamm
Egyptian cotton imported into Columbia, in which by simple selection, as
outlined above, during two years plants were obtained uniformly earlier,
more productive, and yielding longer and better lint.

3. Uniformity in Length of the Lint.--This is important especially in
the long-stapled cottons, unevenness leading to waste in manufacture,
and consequently to a lower price for the cotton.

4. Strength of Fibre.--Long-stapled cottons have been produced in the
States by crossing Upland and Sea Island cotton. These hybrids produce a
lint which is long and silky, but often deficient in strength: selection
for strength amongst the hybrids, with due regard to length, may
overcome this.

5. Season of Maturing.--Seed should be selected from early and late
opening bolls, according to requirements. Earliness is especially
important in countries where the season is short.

6. Adaptation to Soil and Climate.--High-class cottons often do not
flourish if introduced into a new country. They are adapted to special
conditions which are lacking in their new surroundings, but a few will
probably do fairly well the first year, and the seeds from these
probably rather better the next, and so on, so that in a few years' time
a strain may be available which is equal or even superior to the
original one introduced.

7. Resistance to Disease.--The method employed is to select, for seed
purposes, plants which are resistant to the particular disease. Thus
sometimes a field of cotton is attacked by some disease, perhaps "wilt,"
and a comparatively few plants are but very slightly affected. These are
propagated, and there are instances as described above of very
successful and commercially important result