EXPERIMENTS WITH SINGLE-STALK COTTON CULTURE. 31 



gave greater yields at the second picking in 9 of 1 1 instances, and it 

 gave greater yields in the only instances where third pickings were 

 made. While some of the differences are so small as to be insignifi- 

 cant in themselves, there was a general increase throughout the 

 entire series of experiments, in several instances by more than 20 per 

 cent. 



Eliminating, for the present, those experiments in which it is 

 known that the thinning of the single-stalk rows was done too late, 

 those in which the stands were generally poor and single-stalk culture 

 was applied to only the short spaces in the rows where the stand per- 

 mitted the application of the new system, those in which there is no 

 assurance that single-stalk culture was properly applied, and those of 

 which the reports are defective, there remain at least five experi- 

 ments — three in Louisiana and two in North Carolina — that may be 

 considered as fairly reliable tests of single-stalk culture. The yields 

 of seed cotton from these favored the new system by 20 to 39 per cent. 



It is not to be inferred that the particular treatment applied in 

 these experiments is the best development of the single-stalk method 

 or that this method is to be recommended for general application in 

 the States where the experiments were located. The suitability of 

 the new system for any region requires that the local conditions and 

 the behavior of the plants be well understood. How to secure the 

 greatest possible advantage from the control of the branching habits 

 of the plants is a problem worthy of the attention of experimenters 

 who are interested in improving cultural methods with cotton. 



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