18 EESULTS OF COTTON EXPERIMENTS IN 1911. 



plants are kept too dry they make only a slow growth. If allowed 

 to stand too close together the\^ remain weak and spindling. The 

 practical problem is to use the two factors in proper combination, 

 so as to suppress the vegetative branches without interfering with 

 the growth of the main stalk and the fruiting branches. Further 

 experiments are to be made in this direction. 



If the plants can be kept from developing any vegetative branches 

 it will be possible to let them stand onh^ 12 or 15 inches apart in the 

 rows instead of 3 or 4 feet apart, as has been considered necessary, 

 and the rows will not need to be more than 3 or 4 feet apart instead 

 of 5 or 6 feet. Tliis control of the branching may enable the yield 

 to be increased, and at the same time cultivation and picking will 

 be greatly facilitated. 



A control of the brandling would also enable the crop season to 

 be shortened, since one of the chief reasons for early planting would 

 be removed. It would become much more feasible to alternate 

 Egyptian cotton with winter crops. Cold weather, juvenile leaf- 

 curl, and plant lice usually conspire to make the growth of the plants 

 very slow during the spring months. There is notliing to show that 

 later planting would lessen the crop or even delay maturity if there 

 were other ways of controlling the formation of the branches. 



EGYPTIAN COTTON LESS SUSCEPTIBLE TO SHEDDING. 



In another cultural character the Egyptian cotton compares more 

 favorably with the Upland type. Tliis character is the greater free- 

 dom from shedding or abortion of the buds and young bolls. Per- 

 haps on account of its deeper root s3"stem the Egyptian cotton is 

 often able to retain its buds and young bolls under conditions that 

 cause extensive shedding in adjacent rows of Upland cotton. Shed- 

 ding occurs in the Egyptian cotton when the vegetative branches 

 grow up and shade the lower fruiting branches, but there is no such 

 general shedding of buds and young bolls as usually results from 

 a sudden checking or forcing of growth in Upland cotton. 



Losses from shedding are often quite serious in irrigated regions^ 

 each application of water causing many buds to fall. The efl'ect is 

 much the same as when the boll weevil is present. The plants grow 

 large and luxuriant, but have only a few bolls. Tliis was noticed 

 especially in an experimental field of Columbia cotton raised at El 

 Centro, in the Imperial Valley of California, in 1911. An adjacent 

 planting of Durango cotton, though it had suffered in the same way, 

 produced a much larger crop. Wliilo it may be possible to avoid 

 such losses by worldng out better methods of culture and irrigation, 

 the general fact that the Egyptian type of cotton is less susceptible 

 to shedding than the Upland type is an important consideration. 



[Cir. 96] 



