Meade: Bee Keeping May Increase Cotton Crop 



285 



The experiment was carried on dur- 

 ing the early part ot the season, when 

 conditions were favorable for growth, 

 and were discontinued after July 10, 

 because of extreme drought and the 

 presence of boll weevils. 



At the end of the season a complete 

 record was taken of the matured bolls 

 and of the vacant nodes bearing tags. 

 It was thus possible, each day's record 

 having been kept separately, to deter- 

 mine the percentage of 'flowers of each 

 day that developed into mature fruit. 



ARTIFICIAL POLLINATION BETTER 



The results of the experiment are 

 shown in Table I (see Appendix). As 

 was anticipated, better results (an in- 

 crease of nearly 11%) were obtained by 

 artificial pollination in the Durango cot- 

 ton than in the Acala variety, in which 

 the increase was only about half as 

 great. As before stated, the flowers of 

 the former have exserted pistils, not 

 adapted for perfect self-pollination, 

 while those of the latter variety have 

 short pistils. 



The lowest percentages of bolls pro- 



duced were found in the open pollinated 

 rows of both varieties, while the highest 

 percentages were found in the hand 

 pollinated rows. In the open pollinated 

 row of Durango, the lowest and highest 

 percentages of bolls produced were 11 

 and 69.6, respectively ; in the hand polli- 

 nated row, 32 and 81, respectively. In 

 the open pollinated Acala row the low- 

 est and highest percentages were 2vS 

 and 59, respectively ; in the hand polli- 

 Piatcd row, 34.8 and 65.5, respectively. 

 No effort was made to exclude in- 

 sects, and the weather conditions dur- 

 ing the course of the investigation were 

 not unfavorable to their activities. It 

 is evident from the increased yield of 

 bolls secured in the long-pistiled Du- 

 rango variety through artificial pollina- 

 tion that the presence of additional 

 pollinating insects would aid in reduc- 

 ing the high percentage of shedding. 

 The valite of honey bees in this con- 

 riection is recognized in some localities, 

 and it would seem that growers of 

 long-stapled varieties might find bee- 

 keeping a distinct advantage to the 

 cotton crop. 



Counting the Feeble-minded in New York 



After going over the ground care- 

 fully, the Committee on Mental Hy- 

 giene of the New York State Charities 

 Aid Association submitted to the Hos- 

 pital Development Commission an es- 

 timate of the number of feeble-minded 

 in the State, and placed the number 

 conservatively at 35,000. The Eiigcii- 

 ical Nczi's, March, 1918, makes the just 

 criticism that "counting" the feeble- 

 minded is largely a subjective matter, 

 and that many farmers would gladly 



pay $2.00 a day and board during har- 

 vest to a feeble-minded youth who 

 would be unable to be self-supporting in 

 New York City. 



However, this estimate of the Mental 

 Hygiene Committee, although doubt- 

 less far from being an actual count, 

 should do much toward awakening 

 public feeling- to the necessity for ade- 

 quate provision for the feeble-minded 

 and feebly inhibited. 



