18 BULLETIN 121, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



partment therefore can not recommend the Lewis variety for general 

 planting in the Southeast except in cases where the grower is reason- 

 ably assured of a substantial premium. He should have a premium 

 not only over the price of short cotton, but over the price paid for 

 other Upland 1^-inch cottons. If he can get a premium for his length 

 of staple only, he can probably grow the more productive varieties 

 with greater jDrofit. 



COMPARISON OF EARLY AND LATE PICKED COTTON. 



It is interesting to follow the two bales of Webber through these 

 tests and to note the differences between them. Both bales were 

 middling in grade and came from the same field. Webber No. 1 

 was picked and immediately ginned during the early part of Novem- 

 ber, while Webber No. 2 was picked about one month earlier and 

 was stored six weeks before ginning. The early picked bale shows 

 better quality in the comber tests with both the close and wide set- 

 tings. Adding picker, card, and invisible waste, we get for Webber 

 No. 1, 15.11 per cent and for Webber No. 2, 15.12 per cent. These 

 figures show that the grade governs the waste to this point. How- 

 ever, on the 13 to 15 per cent comber setting, Webber No. 1 lost 13.07 

 per cent and Webber No. 2, 11.56 per cent, a difference of 1.51 per 

 cent in favor of Webber No. 2, while with the 23 to 25 per cent 

 setting Webber No. 1 shows 21.81 per cent and Webber No. 2 shows 

 18.10 per cent loss, a difference of 3.71 per cent in favor of the cotton 

 picked early and stored before ginning. 



The values shown in the last column of Tables VIII and IX are 

 also in favor of the Webber No. 2, as these values correspond with 

 the percentage of comber wastes. 



The average breaking strength of the Webber No. 2 is measurably 

 greater than that of Webber No. 1, as shown in Table X. 



We might infer from this showing that in normal seasons the 

 earlier cotton is more desirable than the late pickings from the same 

 field, even though the latter are of the same grade and have sustained 

 no visible damage. There is a widespread belief that the length and 

 strength of cotton increases when it is allowed to lie in bulk for some 

 time between picking and ginning. In this test no difference in length 

 was discernible, and the difference in the amount of short fiber taken 

 out by the comber could hardly be attributed to storage. Greater 

 strength is the only remaining factor of superiority in the Webber 

 No. 2, and it is wholly unsafe to assume that this was due to storage. 

 It would be necessary, in order to determine this point, to test bales 

 picked at the same time, one of which had been stored in the seed, 

 while the other had been immediately ginned. 



