TESTS OF VARIETIES OF COTTON IN 1909. 



BY 



J. F. DUGGAR AND E. F. CaUTHEN. 



In 1909 thirty varieties of cotton were tested on plots 

 on the Experiment Station Farm at Auburn. The cotton 

 was left one plant in a hill in checks 3 1-2 by 3 1-2 feet. 

 The fertilizer per acre consisted of 240 pounds acid phos- 

 phate, 120 pounds nitrate of soda and forty pounds of 

 muriate of potash, making a total of 400 pounds. 



The rather large yields (up to about 1 1-2 bales per 

 acre) for this grade of naturally thin, gray, sandy land 

 were attributable chiefly to plowing under with a disc 

 plow early in April, 1909, a crop of crimson clover, which 

 was then ten to eighteen inches high and beginning to 

 bloom. Seed of crimson clover had been sown on this in- 

 oculated land September 9, 1908, and merely cultivated in 

 between the rows of corn. 



After making allowance for vacant hills, the varieties 

 ranking highest in combined value of lint (at 14 cents) 

 and seed (at |25.00 per ton) were the following: Cook, No. 

 206; Cook, No. 221; Dixie; Hardin; and Poulnot. 



Cook, No. 206, and Cook, No. 221, are both strains of Cook 

 Improved that have been bred up at the Alabama Experi- 

 ment Station. In yields of lint per acre, (793 pounds and 

 736 pounds) . and in total value of seed and lint per acre, 

 ($125.58 and |117.36), and in per cent, of lint (40.6 and 

 39.1 per cent.), they show superiority to the parent variety 

 and to the other varieties tested. 



These two improved strains of Cook suffered severely 

 from anthracnose, generally called boll rot; so did all 

 strains of Cook, whether improved or not ; also Brown, No. 

 1, Blue Ribbon and Hardin. All varieties were attacked 

 by this disease, but to a smaller extent than those men- 

 tioned. 



. 1 



