COTTON 169 



is literally spotted with bolls that have dropped off. 

 This condition possibly should not be called a dis- 

 ease, but rather a provision of nature to adjust the 

 plants to their environment. When bolls are shed 

 it leaves the plant in a better condition to mature 

 those bolls that are unaffected. It naturally brings 

 up the question, however, as to just where is the 

 nice dividing line between full fruiting and over- 

 fruiting. 



No treatment for this trouble is suggested further 

 than having the soil in such condition that it may 

 feed the plants so well as to minimize the evils of 

 unfavorable seasons. 



Root Gall: This disease is located in the roots, 

 and its primary cause is the nematode worm which 

 lives in the tissue and causes the abnormal growth. 

 It is termed a gall. This worm is white or yellow 

 in color, and very small and threadlike in form. It 

 has been said that each female will lay from one 

 hundred to two hundred eggs, and that there may 

 be seven or eight generations in a year. It is 

 readily seen therefore that their growth and ex- 

 tension is rather rapid. From the very nature of 

 this disease it appears that this worm must get into 

 the soil from affected plants, and hence there is 

 practically no way to combat the trouble other than 

 by a change of crops, and using care that other im- 

 portant areas may not be affected in the same 

 way. 



As a matter of fact, the direct damage from this 

 root gall is not of so much importance as the in- 

 direct damage, in that the nematode in its injury to 

 the root prepares the way for the. entrance of the 

 wilt fungus into the root system. Hence it is that 

 the two troubles are often round together, and 

 hence it is that many claim that the. wilt came only 



