COTTON 147 



and long-staple upland cotton. The lint is very long and 

 fine, and commands a price more than double that of com- 

 mon cotton. There is, however, much less lint per acre. 

 Sea Island cotton is largely grown on and near the sea- 

 coast in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, and is not a 

 profitable crop very far from the coast (Fig. 95). 



Varieties of short-staple upland cotton. There are 

 several hundred separate names, but many of these are 

 merely new names for well-known old varieties. The fol- 

 lowing are the main groups of varieties : 



I. Cluster. 



II. Semi-cluster. 



III. King group. 



IV. Peterkin group. 

 V. Big-boll group. 



The cluster varieties bear a part of their bolls in clusters, 

 several bolls being near together, and many near the main 

 stem. The plant is slender and the upper limbs very short. 

 A well-known cluster variety is Jackson. These varieties 

 drop many of the squares or blossoms when weather or 

 cultivation is unfavorable (Fig. 97). 



Semi-cluster varieties resemble cluster varieties in shape 

 of plant, but the bolls are not borne in clusters. The mid- 

 dle and upper limbs, though short, are a little longer than 

 in the cluster varieties. A popular semi-cluster cotton is 

 Hawkins (Fig. 98). 



The King group consists of low plants with numerous 

 crooked limbs of medium length. On many of the blossoms 

 there is a red spot near the base of each petal and inside 



