6 



From this it will be seen that fall pruning is unquestionably 

 preferable. W'e have no conclusive ideas as to whether to prune 

 high or low. the high pruning in some cases excelling while 

 in other cases the low pruned plants gave the better yields. One 

 theory given is to prune very low at hrst and at each succeeding 

 season prune a few inches higher so as always to cut on new 

 growth. After several such treatments it may become necessary 

 to prune low again. Another plan is to cut high and low' alter- 

 nately. However, the form of the individual plant and the con- 

 ditions under which it is grown, rather than any book rule, will 

 determine the treatment which that particular plant shotild have. 

 In 1911 the yield from all high pruned plots (four feet high • 

 slightly exceeded that from low pruned plots pruned two feet 

 high. These results were from Caravonica cotton. 



With Sea Island cotton our experience has been that growth 

 starts low even upon high pruned plants so tliat low pruning be- 

 comes necessary. To control the size and shape of the plants 

 the pruning of Caravonica becomes more necessary than for other 

 varieties because of its rank growth, but in order to control the 

 boll worm the pruning of all varieties becomes necessary. 



CLEAN CULTURE. 



This consists in picking up and burning fallen squares when 

 known to contain the boll worm and, secondly, when picking the 

 cotton the pickers should carry an extra sack in which the in- 

 fested bolls should be put and carried to the side of the field 

 and later burned. This part of the fight against the boll worm is 

 in many cases very difficult to carry on since the laborers in the 

 field look upon it as just so much extra and unnecessary work, 

 but if any headway is to be made against the boll worm or if 

 any profit from the crop is expected some means should be taken 

 to get this work done by the cotton pickers. At the Station we 

 have also fumigated the seed cotton at the gin house with hy- 

 drocyanic acid gas but some of the worms seem to have sur- 

 vived this treatment. 



