256 



KUMPTA COTTON AND ITS IMPROVEMENT 



and fifty plants at various times after planting, as compared with those on a 

 similar number of ordinary kumpta plants, illustrates this point. 



Here it will be seen that while the cottons commence flowering at the 

 same time, the number of flowers on the " Dharvvar No. 1 " is considerably 

 higher, though the general course is the same. After the tenth week the 

 " Dharwar No. 1 " shows a rapid rise and reaches its maximum in the 

 thirteenth week, and then rapidly falls, while flowers practically cease to appear 

 after the sixteenth week. The ordinary kum^^ta cotton in cultivation reaches 

 its maximum a week later than the selection under discussion, and then the 

 fall is not so rapid. Flowers are, in fact, still being produced in large numbers 

 in the sixteenth week, and afterwards. While, therefore, the " Dharwar 

 No. 1 " strain of cotton produces nearly all its flowers from the tenth to 

 the fifteenth week, the kumpta as ordinarily grown goes on from the eleventh 

 week until long after the sixteenth week, and, in fact, has a tendency to pro- 

 duce a very considerable proportion of its flowers in the latter part of its 

 growing season. 



This tendency to produce a large proportion of late flowers is a special 

 disadvantage because, as the following table shows, the later the flowers are 

 produced the greater the percentage of them which are shed and never develop 

 into bolls. The figures were obtained by marking a large number of flowers 

 which appeared during the months of December, January, February and March, 

 and watching their later development both in the " Dharwar No. 1 " and 

 the ordinary kutnpta cotton. 



These figures show the enormous increase in the wastage of flowers formed 

 after January. Of flowers formed in March, in both cases none form bolls. 

 They also show the very much larger proportion of flowers shed without 

 forming bolls in the ordinary kumpta cotton than in the " Dharwar No. 1." 



