220 COTTON CULTURE 



quirements of the cotton plant are by these conditions ideally 

 fulfilled. 



Soils. The upland cotton does not require a particular type of 

 soil. It readily grows on all types if the conditions of climate are 

 favorable. The cotton crop is produced with success on sandy soils, 

 on loams, on the various types of clay soils, and on silty bottom-lands. 

 However, the appearance of the plant is slightly modified and its 

 yield is varied by the influence of different soils. On sandy uplands, 

 the plant is small and inclined toward abundant fruitage, although 

 its total yield is light. On heavy clay soils and on bottom-lands, the 

 plant, in wet seasons, grows large and woody, fruiting lightly in 

 proportion to its size but producing a greater total yield than when 

 grown on light, sandy soils. 



Most Favorable Soils for Cotton. The soils which most often 

 produce successful crops of cotton are medium grades of loam, con- 

 taining 25 or 30 per cent of clay and about 40 per cent of silt. 

 Such soils are porous, easily drained, and early warmed in the 

 spring. They also are retentive of moisture, maintaining on the 

 average 10 or 12 per cent of moisture throughout a growing season 

 of a normal climatic tendency. The loams sometimes do not pro- 

 duce as large yields as do bottom-lands and the heavier clay soils, 

 but their productiveness is more certain ; they have a tendency to 

 produce on the average a good crop under a wide variation in sea- 

 sons, while the productiveness of other soils is more dependent upon 

 seasonal fitness. It is not unusual, in wet seasons, for a cotton crop 

 grown on a heavy clay or rich bottom soil to be so badly injured by 

 the ravages of diseases and insects as to be accounted a failure, or to 

 make such a rank vegetative growth that the fiber will not mature 

 before the frosts of autumn. 



Fertility of Cotton Soils. In certain parts of the cotton belt, the 

 cotton plant does not require for its most successful development an 

 extremely fertile soil, such as is needed for the highest production of 

 corn. A soil of medium fertility which will not cause the plant to 

 make an excessive vegetative growth, and thus delay its maturity, 

 is best for the production of cotton in the northern and central areas. 

 Here, in the relatively short growing season, the timely maturation 

 of the plant has a very important relation to a successful crop, and 



