6 CIRCULAR NO. 130, BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. 



recent years. Improved methods of selection, easier to apply and at 

 the same time more effective, have been developed.^ 



Selection of seed should be considered as a regular part of the farm 

 operations with cotton. Every farmer should either select his own 

 seed or buy it from a more careful neighbor. Neglect of selection is 

 responsible for an enormous annual loss to the American cotton indus- 

 try. A hundred million dollars would be a small estimate of this 

 factor of agricultural inefficiency. 



BEHAVIOR OF THE COTTON PLANT UNDER LOUISIANA CONDI- 

 TIONS. 



No other part of the cotton belt has produced I^pland long-staple 

 cotton of such high quality as the lower Mississippi Valley, in the 

 States of Louisiana and Mississippi, Though excellent long-staple cot- 

 ton can be grown in other States it is still doubtful whether any could 

 compete in the production of fiber of the highest quality if the Louisi- 

 ana and Mississippi planters were to take full advantage of the favor- 

 able natural conditions. In order to secure fiber of the greatest length 

 and strength it is necessary that the plants have an adequate and con- 

 tinuously available supply of moisture, and this is aiforded by rich 

 alluvial lands like those of the Delta region, which has long been 

 famous as the center of long-staple production. 



Though the rich soil and abundant moisture of Louisiana are 

 factors that favor the production of long-staple cotton, they also 

 have the disadvantage of inducing too great luxuriance of vegetative 

 development. When cotton plants grow too rapidly in the earlier 

 stages they produce larger numbers of vegetative branches, each of 

 which has the same possibilities of development as the main stalk. 

 The result is a large, bushy, slow-fruiting plant. The development 

 of the fruiting branches is delayed because of the production of 

 vegetative branches. Even when the plants begin to flower early 

 in the season they may not produce an early crop, for the first of the 

 fruiting branches are borne at the base of the main stalk, where 

 they may be surrounded and overshadowed b}- the vegetative 

 branches, so that the early buds are often blasted or the bolls fail to 

 reach normal maturity. 



The need of restricting the growth of the plants in the early stages 

 of development has been recognized in Louisiana in the practice of 

 deep cultivation, which has the effect of root pruning and is used as 

 a means of inducing earlier fruiting. But a still more effective means 



1 Cook, O. F. Local adjustment of cotton varieties. U. S. Department of Agriculture, 

 Bureau of Plant Industry. Bulletin 1.55), 7."> p.. 1!)00. 



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



U. S. Department of Agriculture. Bureau of Blant Industry, Circular 66, 23 p., 1910. 



Cotton improvement under weevil conditions. U. S. Department of Agriculture, 



Farmers' Bulletin 501, 22 p., 1012. 

 [Cir. 130] 



