230 ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



to the ravages of the boll weevil in the southern cotton 

 growing states. Second, there is a general belief among 

 experienced cotton growers that the boll weevil will not 

 be a serious menace to cotton growing in southern Illi- 

 nois, due to the colder winters of this section of the coun- 

 try. 



The third reason for this revival in cotton growing 

 is the development, by careful seed selection, of earlier 

 maturing varieties of cotton that can mature a paying 

 crop in these more northern regions with their shorter 

 growing seasons. Such early varieties as trice, acula, 

 delfos and express can mature an early crop of high 

 grade cotton in latitudes of southern Illinois. 



The fourth reason is that cotton has been successfully 

 grown in southern Illinois for a great number of years. 

 Added to this is the influence of the largely increased 

 growing of cotton just across the state border, in south- 

 eastern Missouri. This rather large scale production 

 in southeastern Missouri has been so pronounced that 

 it has attracted the attention of business men and farm 

 advisers in adjoining sections of southern Illinois. 



There are other, but perhaps more temporary, causes 

 for this recent activity in cotton planting. These last 

 may even be the greater stimuli to many farmers who 

 will plant cotton this season. The greatest of these 

 stimuli is the present high price of cotton. Very close- 

 ly connected with this is the fact that farmers generally 

 have made but little out of wheat, corn, alfalfa, and live 

 stock in the last few years and are as a consequence 

 ready to listen to any suggestion, of some farm product 

 that promises better money returns than the present day 

 staple crops. Experience alone must in the future deter- 

 mine whether these stimulating causes have sufficient 

 merit to justify present expectations. They certainly 

 seem to have. While there is still some uncertainty as 

 to the cotton acreage for 1924, yet conservative estimates 

 place the amount somewhere between 15,000 and 18,000 

 acres. It may go to 20,000. These estimates are based 

 on amounts of cotton seed already purchased through 

 farm advisers in the various cotton producing counties. 



