EAELY BEAEING AIDED BY LONG BASAT. BRANCHES. 19 



It is very possible, therefore, that if the Giiateinahm variety is able 

 to thrive in the United States it will ripen its crop here in even less time 

 than it requires in Guatemala, and this is rendered the more probable 

 from the fact that in Guatemala the cotton has to be planted in the 

 rainy season and is obliged to exist for the first few months under 

 conditions of excessive moisture. The dry Reason of this district is 

 short and uncertain. For tAvo years, 190:^) and li)04, the Indians were 

 unable to burn their clearings, so that the corn crop failed and the 

 conununity was reduced to the verge of starvation. The cotton crop, 

 in normal seasons, is said to be planted in the latter half of October 

 and ripens in March. 



The introduction of a dwarf, short-season cotton would require, of 

 course, something of a change in cultural methods in the South, since 

 the smaller size of the plants will need to be compensated by closer 

 planting. Tt will be readily understood that to secure the settinjr of 

 a crop m the minimum of time as many plants as possible should 

 be set at work. The question is not that of the maximum [)roduct for 

 each plant or for a given area! With the weevil in the field the time 

 factor becomes of chief importance. 



Little is gained in i-eality by the rank growth of the larger varie- 

 ties; in fact there is a distinct loss in earliness, even though some 

 l)olls are set in the early part of the season. If these are overshad- 

 owed and starved by the continued upward growth, the crop is delayed 

 and the lower part of the plant becomes, on the whole, distinctly 

 unjH'oductive. 



EAHLY BEARING FACILITATED BY LONG BASAL BRANCHES. 



The earliness of the Kekchi cotton is made possible by the fact that 

 the bolls are nearly all borne a,t the base of the plant, the upper 

 branches and their foliage serving merely to assist in bringing to 

 maturity the fruits which are set while the plant is still very young. 



Like several other tropical economic species, such as coifee, cacao, 

 and the Central American rubber tree, the cotton plant has two kinds 

 of branches — the true or primary branch, which arises in the normal 

 positicm of branches in the axil of the leaf, and the secondary or fruit 

 branches, one of which arises at the side of each primary branch. In 

 most varieties only a few of the true branches are develo])ed; often 

 none at all. They are almost always plainly indicated, however, by 

 a small bud or a stunted leaf or two, in case the bud has not remained 

 entirely dormant. 



Cotton plants are either right-handed or left-handed in the sense 

 that on the same plant all the secondary branches come out on the 

 same side of the primary branches. It is possible, therefore, to de- 

 termine by its position whether any particular branch is a primary ov 



