RELATION OF DROUGHT TO WEEVIL RESISTANCE IN COTTON. 13 

 IMPROVEMENT OF QUALITY BY CULTURAL METHODS. 



Cultural methods that allow a continuous development of the 

 plants may also help to counteract weevil injuries. Interruptions of 

 growth not only invite greater damage from weevils but injure the 

 quality of the fiber. If the presence of the boll weevil can induce the 

 farmer to adopt better methods of culture, better staples can be pro- 

 duced, so that a lessening of the crop may be compensated by an in- 

 crease in value. To improve the fiber so as to be able to sell small 

 crops for as much or more than the former large crops would be a 

 very practical method of reducing the losses inflicted by the weevils. 

 Reduced production of long-staple Upland cotton in Louisiana and 

 Mississippi is increasing the demand for superior varieties of inter- 

 mediate lengths, from an inch to an inch and a quarter. These can 

 be grown in many parts of the cotton belt where only short and 

 inferior varieties are now planted. 



With the boll weevil as a further obstacle the tendency is for the 

 careless farmer to give up the culture of cotton, but farmers who 

 adopt the other precautions to make cotton profitable under weevil 

 conditions are likely to take the additional step of adopting better 

 varieties and maintaining the uniformity of their stocks by the neces- 

 sary selection. 



Longer and stronger staples could be produced over a large part of 

 Texas if better varieties were grown and better methods of culture 

 were applied, so that the fiber could be properly ripened instead of 

 growth being suddenly checked by drought and the bolls opened pre- 

 maturely. Even under conditions of extreme drought it is possible 

 to produce fiber of good quality if the plants are not checked. 

 Though plants that develop under dry conditions may remain very 

 small for lack of moisture, they may still produce excellent lint. 

 This was well shown in experiments at San Antonio, Tex., in 1910. 

 A season of continuous drought produced better fiber than the pre- 

 vious year when the drought was interrupted by a rain at the middle 

 of July. The rain allowed a larger growth of the plants, with larger 

 demands for moisture, but no other rains came to maintain the 

 supply. Though the rain undoubtedly increased the crop, much of the 

 fiber suffered in quality because the plants were checked during the 

 fruiting period and the bolls opened prematurely. 



In localities where irrigation facilities exist, even a very limited 

 supply of water could be utilized to great advantage in bringing the 

 cotton crop through to maturity. Where water is to be had in the 

 winter, but without facilities for summer storage, winter irrigation 

 may be practiced as a preparation for the cotton crop, the water being 

 retained in the soil by the same methods of tillage as in dry farming. 

 There is an unfortunate tendency in irrigated districts to apply 

 220 



