468 



FIELD CROPS 



The King type is early in maturing, is short-limbed, and 

 produces small bolls. The big-boll type grows larger and 

 ranker, the bolls are larger, and the crop is later in maturing. 

 Long-staple cotton produces uniformly longer and more valu- 

 able lint than the ordinary upland varieties. The small- 

 boiled cottons pick eas- 

 ily but are readily dam- 

 aged by storms, as the 

 outer covering of the 

 boll, the " burr," is thin 

 and curls backward as 

 the boll opens, exposing 

 the seed cotton and giv- 

 ing it little support. On 

 the other hand, the burr 

 of the big-boll type re- 

 mains flat and supports 

 the seed cotton so that 

 it is not easily dis- 

 lodged . Among the bet- 

 ter known varieties of the small-boll type are the Welborn, 

 Peterkin, and King, while the big-boll or storm-proof type 

 includes Russell, Truitt, Texas Stormproof, and Jones Im- 

 proved. The best-known of the long-staple varieties are 

 Allen, Griffin, and Cook. 



616. Importance of the Crop. Cotton is not only the 

 most important textile plant of the world, but it is one of the 

 most important of the world's crops, for it furnishes many 

 valuable products in addition to the lint from which cotton 

 fabrics are made. The world's production of cotton is about 

 20,000,000 bales or about 9,500,000,000 pounds of lint 

 annually. The average annual production for the five years 

 from 1905 to 1909 was 19,782,825 bales, of which nearly 



Fig. 141. An open cotton boll ready 

 for picking. 



