24 BULLETIN 332, U. S. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 



and irrigation if reasonable profits are to be obtained from the pro- 

 duction of this crop. Even with the abnormally low prices obtaining 

 last year, this farmer made a fair profit on his investment. 



TILLAGE METHODS. 



The 1 best methods of preparing the land for Egyptian cotton and 

 of irrigating and cultivating the crop have been worked out by Mr. 

 E. W. Hudson, superintendent of the Cooperative Testing and 

 Demonstration Garden at Sacaton, Ariz., and are described by 

 him in a recent publication of the Department of Agriculture. 1 



The essential features of these methods consist in the early and 

 thorough preparation of the land ; careful leveling, so that the entire 

 field can be irrigated uniformly; early planting; getting the seed 

 into moist soil; late thinning; leaving the plants close together in 

 the row ; the sparing use of irrigation water until the plants blossom ; 

 thorough cultivation as long as the size of the plants permits; and 

 frequent light irrigation after blossoming begins until the crop is 

 fully matured. 



LATE THINNING AND CLOSE SPACING. 



The Egyptian-cotton plant makes a very luxuriant growth on the 

 irrigated lands of the Southwest. Because of this fact, it was 

 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 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 numerous 

 vegetative branches made the picking very difficult and expensive. 



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. 2 



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

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



1 Hudson, E. W. Growing Egyptian cotton in the Salt River Valley, Arizona. U. S. 

 Dept. Agr., Farmers' Bui. 577, 8 p. 1914. 



2 These investigations were made by Mr. O. P. 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 industry. 



