12 CIECULAK NO. 118, BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. 



of the cotton plant is not borne on the main stalks and upright 

 vegetative branches, but on specialized fruiting branches that grow 

 out horizontally from the upright framework of the plant. When 

 there are too many of the upright shoots normal development of 

 fruiting branches becomes impossible because horizontal branches 

 can no longer secure adequate exposure to the light. The main stalks 

 and vegetative branches, having access to the light, are able to con- 

 tinue their upward growth, but this keeps all the lower parts of the 

 plant under a canopy of shade. 



New fruiting branches continue to be formed on the stalks and 

 vegetative branches as they grow upward, and buds and flowers may 

 be produced in great abundance, but before the fruit has time to 

 develop, the fruiting branches that bear them are buried under so 

 much shade that most of the bolls fail to attain a normal develop- 

 ment. Many of the young bolls are blasted and fall off, while those 

 that remain are usually undersized and open prematurely. The 

 fiber of these premature bolls is also shorter and weaker than that 

 of the well-developed bolls of the same plant, so that the first picking 

 is often inferior to the second. But severe crowding may render 

 the whole crop inferior in quality as well as small in quantity. 



FRUITING BRANCHES REPLACED BY VEGETATIVE BRANCHES. 



According to prevailing theories of cotton culture, the dangers of 

 crowding are to be avoided by having the plants farther apart, but 

 even with ample spacing very large cotton plants may still produce 

 very small crops, and in extreme cases none at all. In addition to 

 the injuries which can be ascribed properly to crowding, luxuriant 

 plants have other disadvantage,- that are not removed, but are even 

 increased by wider spacing. 



Large plants differ from small ones not only in size but also in 

 having a much greater development of the vegetative branches, each 

 of which behaves like an additional main stalk. As the vegetative 

 branches develop from the lower joints of the main stalk and as 

 each joint of the stalk, except in very rare cases, bears only one 

 vegetative branch, the number of such branches can not be increased 

 beyond a certain point without occupying the joints that would 

 otherwise produce fruiting branches. Thus, in very luxuriant plants 

 the vegetative branches are not only larger and more numerous but 

 they occupy a larger number of joints at the base of the stalk. 



In extreme conditions of luxuriance all of the fruiting branches 

 may be replaced by vegetative branches, though the usual effect is 

 that the fruiting branches begin to appear somewhat higher up on 

 the stalk than on plants of more normal development. Though 

 varieties differ somewhat in this respect it may be considered that the 



[Cir. 118.] 



