288 



SOUTEEBN FIKLD CROPS 



260. The Early King-like group (Fi,2,. 137). — The plants 

 are small to medium in size. The fruit limbs, even near 



the top of the plant, are 

 long, slender, and often 

 crooked. The vegetative 

 branches at the base of 

 the plant are short or 

 wanting. The bolls are 

 small. The leaves are 

 similar to those of the 

 Rio Grande group. The 

 seeds are usually small 

 and covered with fuzz of 

 various shades. A large 



Fig. 137. — .'V Cotton Plant of the proportion of the Ijlooms 



K""" '^^'^^ on varieties of this type 



are marked with red spots near the inner base of each petal. 

 The King and its sjaionyms and related varieties consti- 

 tute the earliest of the commonly grown American upland 

 cottons. 



The chief faults of these varieties are the small size of 

 boll, the short fiber, and the tendency of the seed cotton 

 to fall from the Ijurs. 



261. The Big-boll group. — The one characteristic serv- 

 ing to identify the varieties of this group is the large size 

 of the boll. While the size of boll ^'aries with man.v con- 

 ditions, an arbitrary division must be made somewhere ; 

 hence, in this scheme of classification, bolls are considered 

 large if sixty-eight or fewer mature bolls yield one ]50imd of 

 seed cotton. This group may be further subdivided into 

 the following overlapj^ing subdivisions : — 



