322 COTTON 



to loss owing to boll-dropping resulting from excessive 

 accumulations of water around the root systems of the 

 plants and from bacterial and fungoid diseases. 



As a general rule experience has shown that early 

 planting is likely to give the best results, and in St. 

 Kitts, Nevis, and Montserrat the usual months for plant- 

 ing are April and May. In places such as Antigua, 

 Anguilla, Barbuda, and the Virgin Islands, where the 

 rainfall is smaller and more variable in distribution, later 

 planting is practised; as a general rule July may be 

 regarded as the most favourable month for planting under 

 these conditions, but unfavourable weather may cause 

 the operation to be postponed to an even later date. 

 Later planting than July, however, possesses the dis- 

 advantage that the crop matures during the months of 

 December and January, at which time the relatively low 

 night temperatures frequently experienced may lead to 

 injury to the crop and result in serious loss. 



Manuring. 



It cannot be said that any very definite policy in regard 

 to the manuring of cotton has as yet been arrived at. A 

 very extensive series of manurial experiments with the 

 crop has been conducted at the Experiment Station in 

 St. Kitts during the past ten years, in the course of 

 which the same manures have been applied to the same 

 plots year after year; similar trials have also been made 

 for less extended periods in Antigua and Montserrat. 

 The experiments in question have shown that the crop 

 is by no means exhausting, and that on lands in fair tilth 

 a series of crops can be grown for a number of years 

 without manure, and not evince any marked falling off 

 of yield in consequence. This is especially the case on 

 light lands, under which conditions it has been shown 

 that the plants develop a remarkably large root system. 

 It is not implied, however, that manurial treatment is 

 never requisite. When a crop of cotton is grown as a 

 rotation or intermediate crop between two crops of cane 

 no serious consequences may be anticipated from with- 

 holding manure from the cotton crop if the cane lands 

 themselves are maintained in adequate condition; indeed, 



