NO. 6 COTTON OF THE HOPI INDIANS — LEWTON 



years, and when protected by isolation from hybridization with other 

 cottons by bees, has shown itself to be a very distinct species, lia\ in- 

 certain well-marked characteristics. The original seed for this study 

 was obtained in 1901, 1907 and 191 1 from the Moqui and Western 

 Navajo Reservations in northern Arizona by three different persons. 



The first lot of seed tested was turned over to the Department of 

 Agriculture by Dr. Walter Hough, of the U. S. National Museum. 

 Dr. Hough, while engaged in studies on the Hopi Indian Reservation 

 in Arizona for the Bureau of American Ethnology, obtained the cotton 

 seed from a Hopi Indian named Sam Pawiki, living at Oraibi, 

 Arizona, who stated that the seed was raised at Tuba, about 25 miles 

 to the northwest. 



The second stock of this truly American cotton was grown from a 

 few bolls also raised at Tuba, Arizona, and obtained in 1907 by Mr. 

 J. G. Kent, an agent sent by the Office of Indian Affairs on a mission 

 to the Hopi Reservation. Mr. Kent sent the bolls to Dr. Hough, of 

 the U. S. National Museum, who gave them to the writer. 



The third lot of seed was procured for the writer by Mr. Frank A. 

 Thackeray, Supervisor of Schools, from the Hopis of Oraibi village. 



While the plants grown from these three lots of seed show some 

 variation, one dominant type runs through all and is described on 

 page 9. 



This cotton is remarkable for its earliness ; plants have ripened 

 bolls in 84 days from the sowing of the seed. In a test of several 

 hundred species and varieties of cottons from all parts of the world, 

 it was the first to bloom. A study of the branching habits of this 

 species shows that this precocity is due to the appearance of fruiting 

 branches at a very early period in the growth of the plant. The fol- 

 lowing tabulation of a group of 44 normal plants, grown at San 

 Antonio, Texas, 191 1, shows the node at which the first fruiting 

 branch appears, counting from that which bears the cotyledons. The 

 first fruiting branch appeared at the 3d node in one plant, at the 4th 

 node in six plants, at the 5th node in twenty-seven plants, at the 6th 

 node in nine plants, at the 7th node in one plant. 



As is usually the case with most wild or little-cultivated types of 

 cotton, there is a great preponderance of 3- and 4-locked bolls. A 

 count of 19 plants at San Antonio, grown from the original seed ob- 

 tained by Mr. Kent, showed a total of 519 bolls, of which 30.05 per 

 cent were 3-locked, 59.35 per cent were 4-locked and 10.6 per cent 

 were 5-locked. 



Seed of Hopi cotton was furnished Professor W. Lawrence I 'alls 



