EXPERIMENTS WITH SINGLE-STALK COTTON CULTURE. 



9 



or other local conditions would tend to be equalized by the alter- 

 nate-row method of -comparing the two systems of culture. But 

 more numerous and wider skips often appear in wide-spaced rows 

 on account of injury to seedlings, due to greater exposure in the 

 early stages of their development. Fewer plants are injured in 

 single-stalk rows because of the mutual protection afforded by the 

 thick-standing seedlings, and such injuries as occur are rendered 

 unimportant because enough plants remain to thin as desired. This 

 feature has been previously pointed out as one of the many advan- 

 tages of later thinning. 1 



There were 16 rows in the experiment, the two systems being 

 compared in alternate rows. Two pickings were made, but the yields 

 from onlv the first picking were reported. These are shown in 

 Table IV." 



Table IV. — Row yields of the first picking obtained in a single-stalk culture experiment 

 with cotton conducted in 1915 on the Killarney Plantation at Mounds, La. 



Row. 



Yield of seed cot- 

 ton (pounds). 



Row. 



Yield of seed cot- 

 ton (pounds). 



Single 

 stalk. 



Old 



method. 



Single 

 stalk. 



Old 



method. 



No. 1 



35 

 43 

 33 

 38 

 35 

 32 



29 

 28 

 24 

 26 

 25 

 28 

 1 



No.7 



38 

 33 



27 



No 2 



No. 8 



20 



No 3 



Total 





No. 4 



287 

 80 

 39 



207 



No. 5 



Difference 





No. 6 



Increase per cent. . 









Table IV shows that in this experiment single-stalk rows yielded 

 more cotton in every instance than adjoining old-system rows, the 

 total increase for the first picking being 39 per cent. Judging by the 

 appearance of the rows in August, when counts of immature bolls 

 were made by Mr. Watson and the writer, showing 75 to 100 per cent 

 more bolls on the single-stalk rows than on the others, it is believed 

 that the difference in yield from the second picking, had it been 

 recorded, would have been even greater than 39 per cent. But even 

 if it were no greater, or considerably less, the difference in the first 

 picking is of marked significance, since the experiment was located 

 in a section of maximum boll-weevil infestation, where earliness in 

 the cotton crop is of the greatest importance. 



The Boney experiment. — This experiment was on sandy soil located 

 on the farm of Mr. R. K. Boney, at Duokport. Half-and-Half cotton 

 was planted under fairly desirable conditions (date and rate not 

 reported) and a good stand was secured. Definite details concerning 

 the time of thinning the old-method rows and their condition when 

 thinned were not reported. The plants in these rows were spaced, 



1 See Cook, O. F. Leaf-cut, or tomosis, a disorder of cotton seedlings. In V. S. Dept. Agr., Bur. Plant 

 Indus. Cir. 120, p. 29-34, 1 fig. 1913. 



75103°— 18— Bull. 526 2 



