"Brian Sandle" wrote in message
...
Gordon Couger wrote:

You don't run a
business that controls millions of dollars worth of land and machinery
and
not know what you are doing. You may claim that as a defense but a
farmer in
the US that is still in business is not that dumb.

I know they have to look in keeping with `trends'. They have to look a
good farmer, i.e. follow the subtle suggestion that farmers should have
tidy fields - no other plants in them at all.

rubbish, financial viability is far more important than that. No one is
respected by their neighbours for going bust


I farmed before breeders could protect their intellectual property and
the
cotton progress was slow. As soon as the plant protection act passed
there
was an immediate increase in choices private breeders had been holding
back
waiting for it to pass.

A real increase or a decrease? The choices were out there, many of them if
you went out to look for them. Then after patents I guess eveyone would
concentrate on fewer main varieties, sold by subtle pressures, too, maybe.

I read from the 1929 Encyclopaedia Brittanica about many types of cotton.
I suggest that modern spinning technology could be taking a look back at
them.

did the 1929 Encyclopaedia Brittanica mention any yield figures or disease
resistance? Spinners can want what they want but if it cannot be grown
economically they will not get it

Jim Webster