Herbert John Webber

“ It has long been known that in many cultivated plants certain varieties are more resistant to disease than others. As an illustration we have varieties of oranges resistant to foot rot; grapes resistant to black rot and Phylloxera ; wheats resistant to rusts, etc. Even with this knowledge, however, the intentional systematic breeding of resistant strains has only just begun and can only in the past few years be said to have taken shape as a definite method of controlling plant diseases. ”

“ It is evidently due to hybridization in the past history of the plant with a brown cotton. In Peru and other places, you know there are cottons which are perfectly brown; and we are now making tests in hybridizing the brown Peruvian cotton with the Sea Island and upland varieties in order to get this color. The color varies in Peruvian cottons all the way from a light brown to a deep brown; and it is supposed, I don't know how truthfully, that the color in this Egyptian cotton comes from a strain of one of the brown South American cottons infused into Sea Island. ”

“ It early occurred to us that one of the best ways of combatting the disease was to select resistant strains, particularly of the fine Sea Island sorts, where no other kinds of the same quality could be obtained to take their places. In badly diseased fields where almost every plant is killed, frequently a plant here and there can be observed which stands up exceedingly vigorous. ”

“ It is very much finer than the upland and has the silkiness of the Sea Island. If you twist the fibres into a mat they are silky and have all the appearance of Sea Island. A similar type which has been put in the mills of South Carolina, can be detected, it is said, the moment it enters the manufacture, from the smoothness. I do not know why it is, because I am not familiar with the manufacturing side, but it is said that the machinery responds to it much better and that the difference is easily recognized. The fibre is also much stronger on an average than the fibre of the upland. ”

“ Some of the Egyption cotton is of a tawny brown color, a factor which is said to be of importance in the manufacture of some goods, and we find that these tawny varieties when grown in this country generally lose their color and become cream colored or white. In most cases, as for instance the Mit-Afifi or Ashmouni, occasionally a plant grown here will produce the normal tawny color. By selecting seed from these plants strains can doubtless be produced which will uniformly give the desired color. ”

“ In general the lint of the hybrids is about intermediate in length between the Sea Island and upland, and is of much better quality than the upland. Some of the hybrids are fairly productive, while others are nearly sterile. By a careful selection of seed from those which are of good quality and most productive, it would seem that we will certainly be able to produce an upland cotton that will give a longer staple than ordinary upland and yield abundantly in any upland cotton region. ”

“ You see after getting the hybrid it is absolutely necessary to fix it and render it stable, because hybrids are notoriously variable ; so it will require from five to six years longer to fix the strains we have already secured. That is not the case in selected strains of Sea Island because they are already bred up to the length of fibre, and it simply remains for us to prove that we have a resistant strain, and then to produce seed of it in sufficient abundance to send out. ”

“ In the case of the wilt, if the production of a strain which will resist this fungus will take as long and require such an enormous quantity of seed, I should think by the time that the healthy seed got to the farmer, he would not have any cotton alive, if it took five or six years to produce the seed. ”

“ If a deeper brown color is desired 'for any special purposes in manufacture, the Peruvian or Pieura cotton, which is very dark reddish-brown, can possibly be used in hybridization with our ordinary sorts to give the desired color. ”

“ H. J. WEBBER. Well, so far as the hybrids are concerned, they do not ; but the pure Egyptian, when brought over here and grown, do seem to preserve the quality and color of fibre to some extent. In one of the cases that is passed around you will see a sample of the imported fibre of Egyptian, which I take to be the variety Mit-Afifi, in comparison with the same variety which was imported into Texas five years ago and grown there for very nearly five years, and then grown by us in our experimental plats in South Carolina last year. ”

“ The Improvement of cotton The Department of Agriculture in its work on cotton is not trying to improve the machinery. used in cotton manufacture or give you a new gin that will gin cotton cheaper or better. We are, however, as explained by the honorable Secretary of Agriculture, trying to produce for you better varieties than those now grown. ”

“ For the last two years the department has had under investigation a disease of cotton known as " wilt", which has become very serious in certain sections where Sea Island cotton is grown. The malady is caused by a parasitic fungus (Neocosmospora vasinfecta) which enters the small roots and grows up into the main stem, blackening the tissue and causing the leaves to wilt. The plants attacked are killed or stunted so that an entire crop may be A total loss, almost every plant succumbing to the disease. ”

“ The quality of staple produced by these varieties in the United States is apparently as good as the imported staple, but the plants are usually unproductive and it will probably be necessary to improve the productiveness of the different races by selection before they will be satisfactory for growth here. We feel certain that sufficiently productive strains can be obtained by a comparatively few years of selection, and experiments in this direction are already under way. ”

“ It is a Fusarium. It belongs to a new class of diseases that was discovered only a few years ago by Dr. E. F. Smith of the Department. It enters the roots and penetrates up into the stem, causing a blackening of the wood of the stem. ”