RELATION OF DROUGHT TO HABITS OF GEOWTH. 17 



calculated to shade fallen buds lying under them, though even in such 

 buds the weevils did not appear to prosper under conditions of very 

 extreme drought. But an adjacent planting of a newly acclimatized 

 Mexican type of Upland cotton gave much less shelter for the weevils. 

 No leafy branches were developed at the base of these plants until 

 after fruiting had begun, so that the early foliage was borne well up 

 from the ground. 



This Mexican variety had not been supposed to have any special- 

 ized weevil-resisting characters, although it had given very favorable 

 results under weevil conditions. The contrast in behavior between 

 this variety and the Triumph was very striking, the Mexican cotton 

 having much less tendency to put out branches from the lower joints 

 of the stem. 



Partly as a result of later planting and partly because of its 

 different habits of growth, this cotton continued to develop slowly 

 during the dry weather of May and June and was ready when rain 

 finalry came in July to put on very quickly a good crop of bolls. 

 The tendency to ripen all of the bolls at one time has been shown in 

 several other experiments and is to be reckoned as a very desirable 

 characteristic of this type of cotton. It lessens the labor of picking 

 and allows the fields to be cleaned of the old stalks early in the fall. 



The behavior of this Mexican type of cotton may be contrasted in 

 many ways with that of the Kekchi cotton from Guatemala, The 

 Kekchi cotton has several definite weevil -resisting adaptations not 

 possessed by the Mexican cotton, such as hairy stems and leaves that 

 restrict the movements of the weevils, large, hairy, well-closed bracts 

 that impede the access of the weevils to the young buds, and long 

 pendent or creeping basal branches, the buds and bolls of which are 

 seldom attacked because of the strong instinct of the weevils to climb 

 up the plants instead of remaining on the lower branches or crawling 

 downward. But in southern Texas, where most of the experiments 

 with cotton have been made, some of the weevil-resisting characters 

 have cultural disadvantages. Although the lower branches often 

 continue to produce buds and bolls long after the weevils have 

 halted all the other types of cotton, the additional bolls are borne 

 so near the ground that they are often soiled by blowing sand or 

 muddied and rotted by rain. Bolls produced underneath the plant 

 often rest on the ground and are also subject to mildew and other 

 diseases. An attempt is being made to avoid these disadvantages by 

 selecting more erect forms of the Kekchi cotton that carry their bolls 

 clear from the ground and thus enable the several desirable features 

 of this type of cotton to be utilized. In addition to the weevil-resist- 

 ing characters, some of the acclimatized strains of the Kekchi cotton 

 have shown themselves very early and productive, and with lint of 

 good Upland quality. 



