PROrHlCTTOtf OF AMERICAN EGYPTIAN COTTON. 23 



thought necessary at first to plant the rows wide apart (as much as 



5 feet) and to thin severely, leaving the plants finally 2^ to 3 feet 

 apart in the row. Under these conditions each plant attained a 

 large size and produced several long vegetative branches, or " limbs." 

 It was also customary at first to do the thinning, or " chopping " as 

 it is called, when the plants were very small and had only two or 

 three leaves in addition to the seed leaves. While this system of 

 planting and thinning sometimes gave good yields, it was found that 

 the crop was so late in maturing as to be in danger of frost injury in 

 the autumn, and also that the large size of the plants and their nu- 

 merous vegetative branches made the picking very difficult and ex- 

 pensive. 



Closer investigation of the branching habits of the plant developed 

 the fact that these troublesome vegetative branches could be sup- 

 pressed by delaying the thinning until the plants are 8 to 10 inches 

 high and have 10 to 12 normal leaves, and by leaving the plants 

 closer together in the row. 1 



The best spacing distance for the plants has been found to depend 

 somewhat upon local and seasonal conditions. Mr. E. .W. Hudson 

 states that on rich alfalfa, land and with irrigation properly managed 



6 to 8 inches is about 'the right distance, while on new land the plants 

 can safely be left 4 inches apart. This conclusion was reached, how- 

 ever, as a result of experiments with the Yuma variety. Plants of 

 the Pima variety, being less inclined to become limby and having 

 their lower fruiting branches better developed, should probably be 

 spaced not closer than 10 to 12 inches on rich land. The thinning 

 should be done in such a way as to result in suppressing practically 

 all of the vegetative branches without stunting the growth of the 

 central stem or shading too much the lower fruiting branches. 



If growth becomes more luxuriant than was expected at the time 

 of thinning, injurious crowding may still be avoided by taking out 

 every second or third plant. Another expedient is the cutting out 

 of every third row, which may be justified under extreme conditions 

 of luxuriance, even after the plants have reached the flowering state, 

 in order to keep the vegetation from becoming too dense to permit 

 a normal development of the fruiting branches. That more space 

 is required for plants that have not been held in check sufficiently 

 in the early stages does not mean that advantages could be gained 

 by wide spacing at first, which would result in still larger numbers 

 of vegetative branches. The principle to be kept in mind is that 

 the suppression of the vegetative branches makes it possible to 



1 These investigations were made by Mr. O. F. Cook and his assistants, and the details 

 of the investigations, as well as the cultural recommendations resulting from them, have 

 been published in several bulletins, and circulars, for the titles of which see the last 

 section of this paper on the literature of the industi'3 7 . 



