NURSE PLANTING SKLECT COTTON SKKI>. 



9 



first instance, delintecl Lone Star and Pima were mixed in equal 

 proportions and planted through a G-hole corn plate. The stand ob- 

 tained made it possible in thinning to leave the plants of either 

 variety about 18 inches apart. In the other rows also it was possible 

 in removing the beans or peas to leave the cotton plants approxi- 

 mately 18 inches apart, though the actual distance varied with the 

 number of holes in the corn plates used. The total number of plants 

 destroyed in thinning these rows varied between 300 and 500 to the 

 row, 264 feet long. Of these, only 7 to 25 per cent were cotton plants, 

 the remainder, 75 to 93 per cent, being peas or beans. This loss of 

 cotton plants was not more than one-fifth (in one case, only a tenth) 



Fig. 4. — Cotton planted with a nurse crop by means of a corn planter. Only 7 to 25 

 per cent of the plants removed from these rows when thinned were cotton plants, 

 75 to 93 per cent being pea or bean plants. The total number of plants destroyed 

 in each row, 264 feet long, varied from 300 to 500. In the check rows on each 

 side of this plat, which were planted in the usual manner, using an ordinary cotton 

 planter, the number of cotton plants taken out was 453 and 573, respectively. This 

 represents 75 and SO per cent of the total number of plants in the rows. Not 

 more than one-fifth and in one instance fewer than one-tenth that number of 

 cotton plants were lost where nurse plantings were made. The number of plants 

 in each of the rows shown above approximated 140, the extremes being 120 and 

 150. The average distance between the plants was 18 inches, the actual distances 

 varying somewhat with the number of holes in the corn plates used. (Photo- 

 graphed July 11, 1917.) 



as great as that recorded in check rows planted in the usual manner 

 on each side of the nurse plantings. In thinning these checks, 453 

 and 573 plants, respectively, were destroyed, representing a loss of 

 75 and 80 per cent of the total number of plants in the rows. 



In using a corn planter for these plantings a nurse crop with 

 seeds about the size of the delinted cotton seed was found to be best 

 suited to the method. Large beans were cracked to some extent even 

 by the large-hole plates, and they would not feed through the plates 

 containing more and therefore smaller holes. The 6-hole plates 

 appeared to feed at about the proper rate in some instances, but it is 

 probable that a 9-hole or 10-hole plate would be preferable if small 



