To the-Editor of the Nonru-Cmxa Dary News."
Si,—With reference to " seed selection under proper supervision at the ginneries" as mentioned by Mr. Kearsley in his recent lecture, it may be of interest to note that best results are obtained through a systematic way of getting the seeds from the choicest bolls of superior plants in the field, during the picking season.
With careful supervision, all the desired improvements can be easily had, and a longer, more uniform staple of greater strength will be derived.
The most productive plants are those that have the largest, best-formed and most numerous' bolls, which can only be obtained through the continual and careful seed selection, from year to year. This will in iteelt quickly improve the quality of cotton to the desired stan-
So often have American and South Sea Islands seeds been experimented with out here, in reality only a wasting of time and money. It is true, the plant will grow beautifully in the beginning to twice the usual height of the Shanghai plant, and promising the production of a fine crop, but ultimo ately doomed to failure, owing to the hot season not being long enough to mature the bolls.
It is remarkably interesting to witness the difference in the production of some of the plants of cotton, growing side by side, of the Shanghai fields. The ground is more or less fertilized on the same and the process of planting is nearly alike, as well as the care bestowed on the fields being the same, nevertheless, such great differences exist in the quality of the plants. On one side they are to be seen inside two feet in height, with some or no production at all, and just close by a few well-grown up plants with a production of a number of nicely matured bolls, and this very process repeating itself nearly on all the cotton fields surrounding Shanghai.
This is undoubtedly due to the improper care of seed selection, which reflects what great change for improvement can be effected, if it were enforced by some authority and brought to the direct notice of the farmers, materializing very rapidly in an increase in the production of @ much superior standard of cotton.
Immaterial, and without any due consideration of the choice of ceeds,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.