EXPERIMENTS WITH SINGLE-STALK COTTON CULTURE. 



17 



mitted. The exact dates of thinning were not reported, but it is 

 known that the single-stalk rows were thinned later than the others. 

 In reporting the yields obtained, Mr. Akin stated: 



The experiment has not been at all satisfactory to me, owing to several causes: (1) 

 I did not plant enough seed to crowd the cotton sufficiently at the start; (2) the cotton 

 being late, the continuous rains in August caused an enormous amount of blooms to 

 sour and fall off; (3) the boll weevil and bollworms finished what the rain left. 

 However, I thought you might be able to get some data from the report. You will 

 see I had only one picking, no middle or top crop at all. 



Mr. Akin stated further that rows 21 to 28, inclusive, were on 

 much richer soil than the others, and he felt that for this reason 

 they were not comparable. The yields from the remaining 18 rows 

 are reported in Table XI. The first four rows were in the alternate- 

 row test; the remaining five were in a 5-row block of adjoining rows. 



Table XI. — Row yields obtained in a single-stalk culture experiment with cotton con- 

 ducted in 1915 by D. R. Akin, Fouke, Ark. 



Row. 



Yield of seed cotton 

 (pounds). 



Row. 



Yield of seed cotton 

 (pounds). 



Single 

 stalk. 



Old 

 method. 



Single 

 stalk. 



Old 

 method. 



Alternate rows: 



No. 1 



13 

 13 

 13 

 14 



14 

 11 



9 

 10 



9 

 10 



9 

 12 



5-row block — Continued. 



No.7 



15 

 11 

 11 



10 



No. 2 



No.8 



11 



No. 3 . . . 



No.9 



10 



No 4 



Total 







115 

 25 

 28 



90 



No. 5 



Difference 





No.6 











Table XI shows that in every instance the alternate-row yields 

 favored single-stalk culture, and in every instance but one the block- 

 test yields favored this system. The total increase for single-stalk 

 culture was 28 per cent. 



The Tanner experiment. — Mr. J. E. Tanner, R. F. D. No. 7, Texar- 

 kana, planted 60 pounds of Triumph seed per acre on April 18, 

 which was unusually early. The high rate of planting resulted in 

 a good stand, but unsettled weather, accompanied by sudden changes 

 of temperature, caused a very noticeable amount of leaf-cut. 1 



Although somewhat later than desirable, it was possible to thin 

 the single-stalk rows in a fairly satisfactory manner; but the yields 

 from th£se could not be expected to vary much from those of the 

 old-method rows, because the latter were thinned unusually late, 

 accomplishing some suppression of vegetative branches, and the 

 plants were left about as near together as those in the single-stalk 

 rows. 



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

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



