EXPERIMENTS WITH SINGLE-STALK COTTON CULTURE. 3 



The success attained in early experiments with single-stalk culture 

 led to a belief that it should prove advantageous under a variety of 

 conditions existing in the cotton belt. The idea of suppressing the 

 vegetative branches was first developed and applied in connection 

 with the production of Egyptian cotton in the Southwest, where it 

 proved to be of distinct value in checking the rank growth of the 

 plants, which for a time threatened the success of the industry. 1 

 Later, at Norfolk, Va., where the season is relatively short, single- 

 stalk culture gave significantly larger and distinctly earlier yields 

 than the olde.r methods with which it was compared. Similar results 

 have since been obtained in South Carolina with both Sea Island and 

 Upland cotton, and also in Texas, where the most striking advantages 

 have been shown under extreme conditions both of drought and of 

 weevil infestation. These early experiments showed that the system 

 could be used to advantage under a very wide range of conditions, 

 but a large amount of experimental work still remains to be done in 

 order to determine how to secure the best results with the system 

 under any given combination of local conditions of soil, season, and 

 variety of cotton. 



The results of these experiments indicate that single-stalk culture 

 may be profitably applied under a wide range of natural conditions, 

 but definite recommendations can not be made for all localities, as 

 it is recognized that a thorough knowledge of local conditions and 

 familiarity with the new system are essential to its successful appli- 

 cation. It is not expected that experiments with the new system 

 will show advantages under all conditions, and in some instances 

 unfavorable results may be secured, as has been recorded by the 

 Bureau of Entomology in connection with tests conducted by that 

 Bureau in Louisiana in 1915. Such cases may enable the experi- 

 menter to understand the nature and practical limitations of the 

 system and to determine under what conditions of climate, soil, etc., 

 it may be a desirable method for the cotton grower to adopt. 



LOCALITIES WHERE EXPERIMENTS WERE MADE. 



The present experiments were located in the States of Louisiana, 

 Arkansas, and North Carolina. The parishes and counties in which 

 the work was done, the farmers conducting the experiments, their 

 post-office addresses, and the agents cooperating are listed in Table I. 



1 For a general statement of the cultural difficulties encountered and the means employed in surmount- 

 ing them, see Scofield, C. S., Kearney, T. H., Brand, C J., Cook, O. F., and Swingle, W. T., Community 

 production of Egyptian cotton in the United States, U. S. Dept. Agr. Bui. 332, 30 p. 1916. 



