32 BULLETIN" 36, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



cotton in Oklahoma and west Texas is grown at an elevation of 

 1,200 feet or more above sea level, with a comparatively light autumn 

 and early winter rainfall. During much of this period there is also 

 a brisk breeze. Under these conditions, cotton bolls which are frozen 

 before opening dry out rapidly and, even though quite immature, 

 crack and partially open. In the more humid sections of the cotton 

 belt such bolls usually mildew and seldom open so that the cotton 

 can be picked in the ordinary way, yet under Oklahoma conditions 

 a lint of very fair quality is secured from all except the most imma- 

 ture of the bolls. 



As originally understood, the term "bollies" applied only to cot- 

 ton from bolls which had not opened sufficiently to permit the lint 

 to be picked in the ordinary way. These bolls were, of course, quite 

 immature when frozen and the lint was not equal in quality to that 

 harvested earlier in the season. Furthermore with the machinery 

 formerly available for ginning and the imperfect mechanical devices 

 for crushing and extracting the bolls, bolly cotton was of exceed- 

 ingby low grade, carrying more stem, leaf, and boll fragments than 

 any type of cotton previously on the market. Various cotton ex- 

 changes and most of the large exporting firms dealing in western 

 cotton, therefore, stipulated that bollies would not be received on 

 contract, and no matter what their quality may be, bollies are not 

 now considered a legal tender in a cotton transaction. 



Changing conditions of production and improved boll separators 

 and cleaning devices at the gins have changed the original situation 

 very materially. The farmers finding that a frost before the matur- 

 ing of the cotton is not so serious a matter as farther south and in 

 lower altitudes, deliberately plant cotton with the expectation that 

 a considerable proportion of the crop will be frozen in the field. As 

 the weather becomes too cold to permit picking with bare hands, 

 gloves are worn and the fully matured and wide open bolls are gath- 

 ered together with the lint. The immature bolls that have not dried 

 out sufficiently to admit of ginning may be left for a later picking. 

 Of course, the cotton in these open bolls is just as good as though it 

 had been picked in the ordinary manner, and when a load of such 

 cotton is put through the hulling and cleaning attachment of a well- 

 equipped, modern ginnery, a surprisingly good grade of cotton is 

 secured. There appears to be no reason why such cotton should be 

 discriminated against simply because the grower finds it practicable 

 and convenient to separate the cotton from the bolls by machinery 

 at the gin instead of by hand in the field. Such cotton is often 

 called " gathered cotton " to distinguish it from true bolly cotton. 

 Since the cleaning devices of the gins have been so improved as to 

 secure a fairly clean bale from a mixture of cotton and bolls there 



