Miscellaneous* 



200 



[September, 1908. 



should be cultivated every week. Some 

 of our] most successful co-operators have 

 cultivated fifteen times and continued 

 till picking commenced. 



Agitation of Stalks. 



Violent agitation of the cotton stalks 

 when cultivating or ploughing, by means 

 of a brush attached to the cultivator or 

 plough, is recommended. Some farmers 

 attach a chain to the tongue and smooth 

 poles to the whiffletrees, and also a pole 

 to the handles, so as to brush the stalks 

 more than once in passing. Bundles of 

 soft, leafy twigs are better. This knocks 

 off the infested squares. The great 

 majority of squares fall off naturally in 

 a very few days after they become in- 

 fested. Abundant testimony has come 

 from our co-operators to show that as 

 long as weekly cultivation of the crop 

 with violent agitation of the stalks is 

 continued, the damage done by the boll 

 weevil is greatly reduced. 



Picking up Fallen Squares. 



An important aid toward the destruc- 

 tion of the weevils is picking up the 

 squares that fall. If two or three gener- 

 ations can thus be destroyed, it will 

 result in retarding the increase of the 

 weevil and in adding to the cotton crop. 

 This reduces the rapidity with which 

 the weevils multiply and is a great aid 

 in saving the crop, 



Barring off or Topping. 



Under boll-weevil conditions the main 

 cotton crop must be made upon the lower 

 and middle limbs. There is no use of a 

 tall plant. The growth of the plant 

 should therefore be controlled by bar- 

 ring off or topping. As soon as the 

 plant indicates too rapid growth, bar off 

 on each side, thus slightly root pruning 

 and retarding upward growth. The 

 tendency will then be to throw more 

 vigour into the lower limbs and to put on 

 more fruit. This method is especially 

 valuable on rich bottom lands where the 

 stalks frequently grow 6 to 7 feet high. 

 It should be noted that with the boll 

 weevil no top crop is made ; hence, more 

 bottom crop must be secured, requiring 

 a low, limby, vigorous plant. 



Selecting and Storing Seed. 



Scarcely any item in the cultural 

 system is of more importance than the 

 selection of the seed as an aid to early 

 maturity in the following crop. The 

 largest, best, and earliest bolls from the 

 most vigorous short- jointed plants 

 should be selected for seed in advance of 

 the general picking and be stored in a 



dry place. The planting of early- 

 maturity varieties and the selection of 

 seed from the earliest and best bolls on 

 the most vigorous and best-developed 

 stalks are fundamental principles in 

 growing cotton irrespective of the 

 boll weevil and cannot be too closely 

 followed. 



Rotation of Crops and Use of 

 Legumes. 



. The Bureau of Plant Industry in all 

 its instructions seeks to build up soil 

 e nergy and to improve the mechanical 

 Condition of the soil as well. An im- 

 portant factor to this end is rotation of 

 crops and the increase of humus by 

 ploughing-under green plants, especially 

 cowpeas. This builds up the soil and 

 renders it more porous and responsive. 



Some of the serious difficulties in 

 cotton production arise from the grow- 

 ing of consecutive crops of cotton on the 

 same land. This reduces fertility and 

 hence operates against early maturity. . 

 With the best of efforts to clear fields of 

 the weevil in the fall by burning the 

 stalks and deep ploughing, some weevils 

 will survive, and a few soon infest a 

 field. By planting one-half of the land 

 to corn and cowpeas and the other half 

 to cotton, as much cotton can be pro- 

 duced as formerly, and the land will be 

 gradually restored to its original ferti- 

 lity. The corn and cowpeas will also 

 add materially to the income of the 

 farm, but the special reason urged for 

 such rotation under boll-weevil infesta- 

 tion is that the crop of corn and peas 

 leaves the field free from the weevil, 

 as it feeds only upon cotton. It is 

 evident that with the boll- weevil it 

 requires more labour to cultivate an 

 acre of cotton ; consequently, only as 

 many acres should be planted as can be 

 given the best attention, so as to pro- 

 duce a maximum crop, thus leaving 

 more land for cereals and for meadows 

 and pastures. 



Demonstration Work on Various 



Farm Crops. 



The Farmers' Co-operative Demonstra- 

 tion Work, as before stated, aims to 

 cover the entire scope of the manage- 

 ment of the standard crops in the 

 sections where the work is conducted. 

 In addition to the cotton-culture system, 

 which is the main feature of the work in 

 many localities, it may be well to give 

 brief mention of some of the co-operative 

 work on other crops now under way, 

 such as corn culture, the use of soil- 

 renovating crops, and the product of 

 good farm seeds. 



