CHAPTER 16 

 COTTON PRODUCTION 



BY PROF. E. F. CAUTHEN 

 Associate in Agriculture, Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station 



Cotton, the second most valuable crop produced in the United States 

 and the first most valuable export, is grown in that part of the country 

 lying south of 36 degrees north latitude and east of western Texas. This 

 section is known as the " Cotton Belt." The climate and soil are peculiarly 

 adapted to its growth. The warm, moist spring and hot, humid summer 

 favor the growth of the plant and its fruit ; the dry, warm autumn matures 

 and opens the bolls and permits the picking of the cotton. 



Species. The genus (Gossypium hirsutum) includes the common 

 long and short staple varieties grown in the United States. The length 

 of lint varies from one-half inch to one and a half inches. 



Sea Island cotton (Gossypium barbadense) grows on the narrow Sea 

 Islands along the coast of South Carolina and in some of the interior 

 counties of south Georgia and north-central Florida. It makes the long- 

 est, finest and most valuable of all cotton fibers. Sea Island cotton may 

 be distinguished from the ordinary upland cotton by: (1) its long, slender 

 bolls bearing usually three locks, (2) deeply lobed leaves, (3) yellowish 

 flowers with a red spot on each petal, and (4) many black seeds almost 

 necked, with long slender, silky fiber. Its fiber may be two inches long, 

 and is separated from the seed by the roller-gin, which does not cut the 

 fiber from the seed, but pushes the seed out of the fiber. This cotton is 

 used in the manufacture of fine fabric and laces and in the finer grades of 

 spool cotton thread. 



Characteristics of the Plant. Cotton is a tap-root plant. In loose 

 soils this root penetrates to considerable depth, even into the subsoil. 

 When the subsoil is hard, poorly drained or near the surface, the tap-root 

 is forced aside and the plant becomes dwarfed. Most lateral roots branch 

 from the tap-root near the surface and feed shallow, hence the need of 

 shallow cultivation. 



On fertile soil cotton may grow five or six feet high. From its nodes 

 spring two kinds of branches, vegetative and fruit-bearing. The lowest 

 branches or vegetative ones are often called base limbs; they may bear 

 short fruit-limbs. As the top of the plant is approached, the branches 

 shorten, giving it a conical shape. The bolls of cotton are borne only on 

 fruit-limbs. 



Some varieties, like Russell and Triumph, produce bolls from one and 



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