BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. 171 



plants are all of one kind or of two or more different kinds, or a 

 miscellaneous mixture of sorts, as in the ordinary gin-run stocks. 

 If the plants are different and produce different kinds of fiber, the 

 staple will not be uniform in the bale. Even with short staples 

 uniformity is important, and manufacturers would willingly pay 

 more for really uniform fiber if assured of the " even-running 

 quality "' that is their ideal of textile raw material. Notwithstand- 

 ing the importance of uniformity to the manufacturer in reducing 

 wastes and lessening costs in factory production, little attention 

 has been given to this problem on the agricultural side to recognize 

 and remove the causes of uneven fiber. 



Classing cotton in the field. — In communities or districts that 

 specialize on one variety, as in the Salt Eiver Vall?y of Arizona, 

 the highest degree of uniformity in cotton production can be at- 

 tained. In addition to guarding the purity of the seed stock, be- 

 cause mixing is excluded, the effects of different conditions of 

 growth are more readily recognized when all the fields of a com- 

 munity are planted with the same variety. Since the effect of un- 

 favorable conditions is to keep some of the cotton from reaching 

 a full or normal development of length and strength of th i staple, 

 the general uniforniity and value of the crop are impaired if short, 

 weak, or " perished " fiber or cotton that is injured by bad conditions 

 is included with the good fiber. ^ Some of the inequality is detected, 

 of course, by the usual commercial classing of samples drawn from 

 the bales, but experience shows that many irregular bales are not 

 detected until they reach the mill. If commercial classing were 

 preceded by field inspection, a more definite basis for tlie certifica- 

 tion of uniformity would be secured. The possibility of field class- 

 ing was recognized several years ago, and a practical ti st is to be 

 made with the crop of 1922 in the Salt Eiver Valley. 



Getting full stands of cotton. — Lack of a full stand is one of th^ 

 most serious and general factors in restricting the production of 

 cotton and is especially serious in Texas and in tlie irrigated valleys 

 of Arizona and California. 



Promj^t germination of the seed in advance of the drying of the 

 surface soil has been recognized as desirable. For this reason, as 

 well as to avoid clogging planting machines, the delinting of cotton 

 seed is practiced to remove the " fuzz '■ or short fibers from, the 

 surface of the seed. Chemical delinting with strong sulphuric acid 

 also has been advised, with the probable advantage of disinfecting 

 the seed as well as removing the fuzz, but no safe and practical 

 process of chemically delinting large quantities of seed has been de- 

 veloped. Further investigation in this line has led to the recognition 

 of a new possibility of delinting wnth gaseous hydrochloric acid. 

 This avoids the most serious difficulties of the sulphuric-acid treat- 

 ment. Exposure'of the dry seed to hydrochloric acid disintegrates 

 the lint, so there is no need of the wetting, washing, and drying of 

 the seed that were the serious difficulties of the sulphuric-acid treat- 

 ment. A public-service patent has been granted at the request of the 

 Department of Agriculture to Mr. Loren G. Polhamus, the inventor 

 of the process of delinting wath hydrochloric acid, and efforts are 

 now being made to develop it on a scale that can be used generally 

 for planting seed. 



