14 BULLETIN 279, TJ. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



It was found possible to cultivate close to the plants in single-stalk 

 rows without injury to the stalks. On the other hand, it was difficult 

 to cultivate so close to the plants in wide-spaced rows without injuring 

 the vegetative branches and the stalks. 



All fruit was borne on the lower half of the plants in both kinds of 

 rows, as may be seen in Plates I, III, IV, and in figure 1 of Plate V. 

 As previously stated, the drought caused the shedding of all the bolls 

 and flowers that would have developed after July 10. The bare stalks 

 that appear above the fruited portions of the plants represent the 

 growth made after the middle of July. Until the August rains rela- 

 tively little growth was made, but after these rains the growth was 

 very rapid. It was after this period of rapid growth that the taller 

 plants in the single-stalk rows began to lean to one side or the other, 

 resulting in the form of row shown in Plate I. 



YIELDS FROM SECTIONS A AND B. 



It has been shown that, compared with wide-spaced rows, the 

 single-stalk rows in sections A and B showed far less vegetative-branch 

 development, and that the plants grew to a greater height, thus 

 facilitating cultivation between the rows; they produced flowers in 

 greater abundance, and they set more bolls of about the same size as 

 the others, though a higher percentage contained four instead of five 

 locks. 



It now remains to be shown how the two systems of culture com- 

 pared from the standpoint of yield, which is the most important con- 

 sideration, provided that the quality of the lint is not affected. The 

 yields are recorded in Tabic VI. 



Table VI shows that in section A, in which wide-spaced and single- 

 stalk rows were compared in alternate rows, the yields from wide- 

 spaced rows ranged from 9 to 14.4 pounds, while in single-stalk rows 

 the range was from 17.6 to 31 pounds, the lowest yield from the 

 single-stalk rows being 22 per cent greater than the highest yield 

 from wide-spaced rows. These results are shown graphically in 

 figure 2. The increase in the total yield of the single-stalk rows over 

 the adjoining wide-spaced rows ranged from 63 to 227 per cent, witli 

 an average of 125.5 per cent. (See PI. II.) 



At the time the first picking was made, on August 11, 31 per cent 

 of the total crop from the wide-spaced rows was picked, as compared 

 with only 26 per cent of the crop from the single-stalk rows. In 

 spite of this fact, the first picking from the single-stalk rows yielded 

 88 per cent more seed cotton than the wide-spaced rows. The 

 second picking was made on September 8, when the yield obtained 

 from single-stalk rows was 144 per cent more than that from wide- 

 spaced rows. 



