NURSE PLANTING SELECT COTTON SEED. 7 
This treatment does not seem to injure the seed and may actually be 
beneficial, especially as regards germination. Moreover, it was found 
while treating seed in this manner that during the washing process 
the seed could be very easily separated according to weight. That it 
would be advantageous to remove the lighter seed was indicated by 
the results of several germination tests under field and laboratory 
conditions. Further experiments along this line are in progress. 
Among the advantages to be gained by delinting cotton seeds which 
have a direct bearing on the present discussion may be mentioned the 
ease with which they may be handled in hand dropping and the pos- 
sibility of using a corn planter in making increase plantings. It is 
a simple matter to take one or two delinted seeds from a bag, but it is 
more difficult to take only that number when not delinted, as the fuzzy 
seeds tend to adhere to one another. For the same reason, it is hardly 
possible to mix thoroughly the fuzzy seeds of two varieties of cotton 
or of one variety with beans or peas. Furthermore, there probably 
is no machine that could be used effectively in planting seed mixtures 
of which fuzzy seed formed a part. But the corn planter, as will be 
shown, can be used to good advantage when the cotton seeds are de- 
linted. 
METHOD OF PLANTING IN HILLS. 
Much improvement is possible in the methods of hill planting that 
are ordinarily practiced. The usual method is for one man to open 
a shallow hole with a hoe and another man to drop the seeds, the first 
man covering them with the hoe and compacting the soil about the 
seed with the hoe or the foot. The chief objection to this method is 
that considerable care must be exercised to guard against planting the 
seeds too shallow or too deep. Even under the most favorable cir- 
cumstances there is usually rather too much variation in this re- 
spect. Moreover, it is not always practicable to cover the seeds with 
moist soil, dry soil often rolling to the seeds before proper covering 
can be accomplished. 
This method is further complicated where nurse plantings are 
made, though this is not so serious a matter if the cotton seeds have 
been delinted. It is necessary for the man dropping the seeds to drop 
the select cotton seed with one hand and the beans or peas with the 
other. This operation requires a little more time than where cotton 
alone is being planted, but the gain through the conservation of se- 
lect seed very likely would more than offset the loss of time involved. 
In the experiments at San Antonio the writer found that a simple 
hand corn-planting device could be used advantageously in planting 
cotton or cotton-bean or cotton-pea combinations. This planter was 
designed by the Office of Corn Investigations and was being used 
in planting some experiment plats with corn on the San Antonio 
farm when it came to the writer's attention. Briefly it may be de- 
scribed as follows : A wooden strip, 3 inches wide and 36 inches long 
