MEADE COTTON REPLACING SEA ISLAND. 17 



8 or 10 years ago by the United States Department of Agriculture. Reports 

 coming directly to the department and to southern agricultural journals 

 which have interested themselves in encouraging the nevi^ system show that 

 farmers throughout the cotton regions of the country are rapidly turning to 

 the plan. Increased yield, less labor and expense for the same crop, and a 

 lessening of boll-weevil damage are among the benefits recited in hundreds of 

 letters written by farmers in various parts of the South. Indications are that 

 the system will be adopted far more widely the coming season. 



SPACE PLANTS A HOE WIDTH APAET. 



The close spacing, more commonly known as the single-stalk method of cotton 

 culture, consists primarily in spacing the cotton plants so close in the row — a 

 hoe width apart — that the lower or vegetative branches do not develop, and the 

 growth of the plant goes directly into the upper or fruiting branches, permit- 

 ting them to begin the development of blossoms and bolls earlier and giving 

 them more nourishment and more light. 



The cultural ideal under the new system is a cotton plant with only the 

 single, erect, central stalk bearing numerous well-developed fruiting branches, 

 but none of the vegetative branches or secondary stalks. The suppression of 

 the vegetative branches is easily accomplished by leaving the young plants 

 close together in the rows. Thinning is deferred until the plants are some 6 

 to 8 inches high, or even later under conditions of rank growth. If the young 

 plants stand less than 6 inches during these early stages of growth, more of 

 them will not produce many vegetative branches, but will have only the upright 

 central stalk and the horizontal fruiting branches. 



The distance between the plants is regulated with reference to local condi- 

 tions and the habit of growth of different varieties, the range being between 

 6 and 12 inches. The plants then have a narrow upright form and can be left 

 closer together in the rows. Even with the plants only 3 or 4 inches apart in 

 the rows there may be less injurious crowding than with large many-stalked 

 plants 3 feet apart in the rows. The distance between the rows, usually 3i 

 feet, can also be varied with reference to local conditions, but crowding the 

 rows together so that the sun does not reach the ground is undesirable, 

 especially under weevil conditions. 



SMALL PLANTS MAY OUTYIELD LARGE ONES. 



In the way of production two distinct advantages are gained : The smaller 

 single-stalked plants, free from any large unproductive offshoots, proceed at 

 once to the development of the branches which produce cotton bolls, and in many 

 cases these small plants produce almost as many bolls and a better quality of 

 lint than large many-stalked plants occupying the space of three of the smaller. 

 The bolls also are produced much earlier on the small plants and are more likely 

 to escape injury by the boll weevil. 



The Egyptian cotton industry of the Southwest, which was established as a 

 result of the work of the Department of Agriculture and has added 

 $20,000,000 a year to the annual agricultural income of the country, could not 

 have been accomplished, in the opinion of department specialists, without 

 the new close-spacing system for controlling the vegetative branches. The 

 benefits to the $2,000,000,000 cotton crop of the country at large, with continued 

 extension of the new method, can only be faintly estimated. 



