THE ABORTION OF FRUITING BRANCHES IN COTTON. 13 



normal position of the first fruiting branch is at about the sixth joint 

 above the cotyledons in the Upland type of cotton and at about the 

 eighth joint in the Egyptian type. Vegetative branches also develop 

 very often from the axils of the cotyledons, making seven places for 

 vegetative branches in Upland cotton and nine in the Egyptian, 

 though it is not usual to find all of the joints producing branches. 



The natural effect of deferring production of fruiting branches 

 would be to postpone the formation of buds, flowers, and bolls, but 

 other factors contribute to the same end and increase the disabilities 

 of overgrown plants. Even when the vegetative branches can not be 

 said to replace the fruiting branches in the sense of taking their 

 places on the stalk, their development is often greatly in excess of 

 what is desirable for purposes of crop production. Indeed, it would 

 be an agricultural advantage if vegetative branches could be entirely 

 suppressed. Cultural methods of avoiding the development of vegeta- 

 tive branches have been described in another paper. 1 



COMPETITION OF VEGETATIVE BRANCHES WITH FRUITING 



BRANCHES. 



Crowding plants in the field and replacing a few of the early 

 fruiting branches with vegetative branches are not the only dis- 

 advantages of luxuriant growth. A much more serious factor is 

 the crowding and competition between the two kinds of branches, for 

 this continues throughout the season. Wider spacing does not avoid 

 this more serious disadvantage of excessive vegetative development, 

 for the reason that the inside of every large plant represents the 

 same condition of shading and repression of fruiting branches as in 

 a crowded field. 



Even when large plants are allowed to stand well apart, so that 

 the branches of different plants do not come in contact, each plant 

 is able to establish a harmful shade of its own. When many vege- 

 tative branches are produced they surround the main stalk like a 

 hedge and prevent the development of any normal fruiting branches 

 within 2 or 3 feet of the ground. Although the fruiting branches 

 may have begun a normal grow T th early in the season and reached 

 the stage of flowering and fruiting, the subsequent thickening of the 

 shade above them often prevents the maturing of any fruit, in the 

 same way as when the plants are crowded in the field. Many of the 

 buds or young bolls drop off, or some make a partial development, 

 produce a little inferior fiber, and open prematurely. The branches 

 that bear such bolls are small, slender, and short lived in comparison 

 with those farther up on the stalk; many of them are dead and 

 shriveled before the harvest season arrives. 



1 Cook, O. P. A new system of cotton culture. U. S. Department of Agriculture, 

 Bureau of Plant Industry, Circular 115, 1913. 



[Cir. 118.] 



