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SINGLE-STALK COTTON CULTURE AT SAN ANTONIO. 5 
CHOPPING WIDE-SPACED ROWS. 
In the region of San Antonio the general practice is to chop the 
plants when they are still very small, leaving one or two plants every 
18 to 24 inches apart. This is usually done as soon as possible after 
germination, depending generally on weather conditions or when the 
choppers are best able to do the work, rather than on the stage of 
the plants’ development. In the San Antonio test an attempt was 
made to approximate this practice in the wide-spaced rows. The 
plants were spaced to 2 feet, but owing to rain the chopping was 
delayed until May 6, 22 days after planting. At this time the plants 
were about 3 or 4 inches high and had one or two foliage leaves in 
addition to the seed leaves. 
THINNING SINGLE-STALK ROWS. 
In the single-stalk rows it was planned to leave the plants from 6 
to 8 inches apart, and except in the short skips it was possible to 
secure the spacings desired. In order to have the spacing as accurate 
as possible and to leave the most promising plants the thinning was 
done by hand. 
Care was exercised near the skips to leave the plants slightly 
closer together, in order that the effect of the open space might to a 
degree be overcome and that the development of vegetative branches 
might be prevented. Later observation showed, however, that one 
or two vegetative branches generally developed on plants next to 
skips or at the ends of rows. 
The plants developed slowly during the cool, cloudy days of April 
and early May, so that it was late in May before they were in the 
proper condition for thinning. Because of continued rains the thin- 
ning was not done, however, until June 2. At this time the plants 
were about 12 inches high and had about eight full-grown leaves. 
On some of the most precocious plants fruiting branches had begun 
to develop. It is believed that had it been possible to do the thin- 
ning a week or 10 days earlier, when the plants had but five or six 
full-grown leaves and were only 8 or 10 inches high, it would have 
been more effective. 
RESULTS OF THE TEST. 
In compering the wide-spaced and single-stalk systems of culture 
the following points were considered: Development of vegetative 
branches, rate of flowering, number of bolls set, number of locks in 
bolls, size of bolls, the form of rows, yields of seed cotton, and 
percentage and quality of lint.! 
1 The writer was greatly assisted in securing the data at different times during the season by Messrs. 
Robert E. Kerr, James Taylor, H. Gregory McKeever, G. B. Gilbert, and G. W. R. Davidson. There 
was at all times close cooperation with the staff of the United States experiment farm at San Antonio. 
