NURSE PLANTING SELECT COTTON SEED. 9 
first instance, delinted Lone Star and Pima were mixed in equal 
proportions and planted through a 6-hole corn plate. The stand ob- 
tained made it possible in thinning to leave the plants of either 
variety about 18 inches apart. In the other rows also it was possible 
in removing the beans or peas to leave the cotton plants approxi- 
mate^ 18 inches apart, though the actual distance varied with the 
number of holes in the corn plates used. The total number of plants 
destroyed in thinning these rows varied between 300 and 500 to the 
row, 264 feet long. Of these, only 7 to 25 per cent were cotton plants, 
the remainder, 75 to 93 per cent, being peas or beans. This loss of 
cotton plants was not more than one-fifth (in one case, only a tenth) 
Fig. 4. — Cotton planted with a nurse crop by means of a corn planter. Only 7 to 25 
per cent of the plants removed from these rows when thinned were cotton plants, 
75 to 93 per cent being pea or bean plants. The total number of plants destroyed 
in each row, 264 feet long, varied from 300 to 500. In the check rows on each 
side of this plat, which were planted in the usual manner, using an ordinary cotton 
planter, the number of cotton plants taken out was 453 and 573, respectively. This 
represents 75 and 80 per cent of the total number of plants in the rows. Not 
more than one-fifth and in one instance fewer than one-tenth that number of 
cotton plants were lost where nurse plantings were made. The number of plants 
in each of the rows shown above approximated 140, the extremes being 120 and 
150. The average distance between the plants was 18 inches, the actual distances 
varying somewhat with the number of holes in the corn plates used. (Photo- 
graphed July 11, 1917.) 
as great as that recorded in check rows planted in the usual manner 
on each side of the nurse plantings. In thinning these checks, 453 
and 573 plants, respectively, were destroyed, representing a loss of 
75 and 80 per cent of the total number of plants in the rows. 
In using a corn planter for these plantings a nurse crop with 
seeds about the size of the delinted cotton seed was found to be best 
suited to the method. Large beans were cracked to some extent even 
by the large-hole plates, and they would not feed through the plates 
containing more and therefore smaller holes. The 6-hole plates 
appeared to feed at about the proper rate in some instances, but it is 
probable that a 9-hole or 10-hole plate would be preferable if small 
