A NEW SYSTEM OF COTTON CULTURE! 1 



By O. F. Cook. Bionomist in Charge of Crop Acclimatization and Adaptation 



Investigations. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The way to secure an early short-season crop of cotton is to thin 

 the plants later and leave them closer together in the rows than is 

 now customary. Neither of these policies is advisable if used alone, 

 but they give a real advantage when properly combined. Keeping 

 the plants closer together during the early stages of growth restricts 

 the formation of vegetative branches and induces an earlier develop- 

 ment of fruiting branches. The new system is based on the princi- 

 ple of controlling the formation of the branches, as explained in 

 previous reports and publications of the Bureau of Plant Industry. 2 



CONTROLLING THE FORMATION OF BRANCHES. 



The principle of branch control is more likely to be understood 

 if studied as the basis of a new cultural system. Application of 

 the principle will involve a reconsideration of all current opinions 

 regarding such questions as distances between rows, times of plant- 

 ing, methods of cultivation, and the values of different varieties. 

 The spacing of the plants and the stages at which thinning should 

 be done will depend upon the local conditions and the habits of the 

 varieties that are being grown, so that it will not be possible to give 



1 Issued Mar. 1, 1913. 



- Cook, O. F. Weevil-resisting adaptations of the cotton plant. D. S. Department of 

 Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry, Bulletin 88, 87 p., 10 pi., 1906. 



Cotton selection on the farm by the characters of the stalks, leaves, and 



bolls. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry, Circular 60, 23 p., 

 1910. 



Dimorphic branches in tropical crop plants : Cotton, coffee, cacao, the Central 



American rubber tree, and the banana. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of 

 Plant Industry, Bulletin 198, 64 p., 9 fig., 7 pi., 1911. 



and Meade, R. M. Arrangement of parts in the cotton plant. U. S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry, Bulletin 222, 26 p., 9 fig., 1911. 



Cotton improvement under weevil conditions. U. S. Department of Agricul- 

 ture, Farmers* Bulletin 501, 22 p., 1912. 



; Results of cotton experiments in 1911. D. S. Department of Agriculture. 



Bureau of Plant Industry, Circular 96, 21 p., 1912. 



Morphology of cotton branches. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau 



of Plant Industry, Bulletin 256, 113 p., 19 fig., pi.. 1913. 



Heredity and cotton breeding. I'. S. Department of Agriculture. Bureau of 



Plant Industry, Bulletin 256, 113 p., 19 fig., 6 pi., 1913. 



[Cir. 115] 15 



