UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



EPARTMENT BULLETIN No. 1320 



Washington, D. C. T April, 1925 



BEHAVIOR OF COTTON PLANTED AT DIFFERENT DATES IN WEEVIL- 

 CONTROL EXPERIMENTS IN TEXAS AND SOUTH CAROLINA 



By W. W. Ballard, Senior Scientific Aid, and D. M. Simpson, Assistant Agron- 

 omist, Office of Crop Acclimatization and Adaptation Investigations, Bureau of 

 Plant Industry 



CONTENTS 



Page 



A separate late planting at San Antonio 23 



Yields from cotton experiments at San Antonio. 28 

 Soil, climatic, and weevil conditions at Charles- 

 ton, S. C 29 



Comparison of successive adjacent plantings at 



Charleston 1 30 



Yields from successive plantings at Charleston. 38 



Adverse conditions at Gainesville, Fla 41 



Summary 41 



Introduction 



Soil, climatic, and weevil conditions at San An- 

 tonio, Tes 2 



Comparison of successive adjacent plantings at 

 San Antonio 3 



Yields from successive plantings at San An- 

 tonio 19 



Percentage of 5-lock bolls on early and late 

 plantings at San Antonio - 22 



INTRODUCTION 



More information is needed on the growth and fruiting habits of 

 early and late planted cotton in relation to cultural control of the 

 boll weevil. In the season of 1923 comparisons were made of the 

 behavior of early and late plantings in Texas and South Carolina, 

 and differences were shown in the rates of growth and the fruiting 

 habits of the plants. 



A more rapid formation of nodes during the seedling stage of the 

 plants was found to occur in the later plantings, resulting in a shorter 

 interval between the date of planting and the appearance of the first 

 floral bud. The fruiting capacity of late-planted cotton was found 

 to equal and in some cases to exceed that of the early-planted cotton. 

 The large number of floral buds produced in later plantings was due 

 to the fact that more nodes were produced on the lower fruiting 

 branches. Also, slightly larger numbers of flowers were recorded on 

 the late-planted cotton, although the early plantings produced a 

 larger number of flowers during the first part of the flowering period. 



The experiments were made in three places — San Antonio, Tex., 

 Charleston, S. C, and Gainesville, Fla. The object of having 

 similar tests in three widely separated parts of the Cotton Belt was 

 to secure comparative data of plant development under different 

 soil and climatic conditions. The experiments consisted of side-by- 

 side comparisons of cotton planted on four different dates. An 



20718"— 25f 1 



