Better Cottons, Better Fabrics.--"You can't tell a book by its cow.~r! '' Nor, says the U. S. Department of Agriculture, can you tell the quality and usefulness of cotton by looking at cotton bolls and feeling them--or simply by taking samples from a bale and observing them. Facts on cotton usefulness and quality are determined by the Department through exhaustive scientific tests of commerical varieties each year.
Cottons from the I944 crop--achieving high marks in spinning and other tests--will benefit the average consumer from one to three years later by furnishing better and stronger cotton fabrics, easier to manufacture and, consequently, cheaper. Cottons which go through these tests really have to "take it." Flaws in performance show up under cold scientific analysis. Good points, also, stand out as a result of exhaustive testing. Tests include thickness of fiber, length, maturity, tensile strength, napiness (tiny knots), strength of corded yarn, appearance, spinning performance and many other factors that determine the bed rock worth of cotton on a factual basis instead of on a guess basis.
From the 1944 crop, some of the major upland varieties which graduated from the hard boiled testing procedures with honors include the following. listed not in order of performance, and all medium staple length.
I. Acala I5-I7, grown largely in irrigated areas of the Southwest. 2. Delta and Pineland I4, grown largely across the whole "southern cotton belt."
3-Stoneville 2B, grown largely across the whole "southern cotton belt." 4. Coker Ioo, grown largely in Georgia and the Carolinas. Mrs. Housewife will benefit from each of these strains to some extent this year--and more during the next two years. But the research continues yearly for more nearly perfect cotton, and it will continue with the aid of all help science can bring to bear. R. H. O.