NURSE PLANTING SELECT COTTON SEED. 7 



This treatment does not seem to injure the seed and may actually be 

 beneficial, especially as regards germination. Moreover, it was found 

 while treating seed in this manner that during the washing pi 

 the seed could be very easily separated according to weight. Thai if 

 would be advantageous to remove the lighter seed was indicated by 

 the results of several germination tests under field and laboratory 

 conditions. Further experiments along this line are in progres . 



Among the advantages to be gained by delinting cotton seeds which 

 have a direct bearing on the present discussion may be mentioned the 

 ease with which they may be handled in hand dropping and the pos- 

 sibility of using a corn planter in making increase plantings. It is 

 a simple matter to take one or two delinted seeds from a bag, but it is 

 more difficult to take only that number when not delinted, as the fuzzj 

 seeds tend to adhere to one another. For the same reason, it is hardly 

 possible to mix thoroughly the fuzzy seeds of two varieties of cotton 

 or of one variety with beans or peas. Furthermore, there probably 

 is no machine that could be used effectively in planting seed mixtures 

 of which fuzzy seed formed a part. But the corn planter, as will be 

 shown, can be used to good advantage when the cotton seeds are de- 

 linted. 



METHOD OF PLANTING IN HILLS. 



Much improvement is possible in the methods of hill planting that 

 are ordinarily practiced. The usual method is for one man to open 

 a shallow hole with a hoe and another man to drop the seeds, the first 

 man covering them with the hoe and compacting the soil about the 

 seed with the hoe or the foot. The chief objection to this method is 

 that considerable care must be exercised to guard against planting the 

 seeds too shallow or too deep. Even under the most favorable cir- 

 cumstances there is usually rather too much variation in this re- 

 spect. Moreover, it is not always practicable to cover the seeds with 

 moist soil, dry soil often rolling to the seeds before proper covering 

 can be accomplished. 



This method is further complicated where nurse plantings are 

 made, though this is not so serious a matter if the cotton seeds have 

 been delinted. It is necessary for the man dropping the seeds to drop 

 the select cotton seed with one hand and the beans or peas with the 

 other. This operation requires a little more time than where cotton 

 alone is being planted, but the gain through the conservation of se- 

 lect seed very likely would more than offset the loss of time involved. 



In the experiments at San Antonio the writer found that a simple 

 hand corn-planting device could be used advantageously in planting 

 cotton or cotton-bean or cotton-pea combinations. This planter was 

 designed by the Office of Corn Investigations and was being used 

 in planting some experiment plats with corn on the San Antonio 

 farm when it came to the writer's attention. Briefly it may be de- 

 scribed as follows : A wooden strip. 3 inches wide and 36 inches long 



