12 BULLETIN 668, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
The saving of seed through nurse planting makes it possible also 
to duplicate or triplicate the planting in other fields. Such a pre- 
caution would provide against the total loss of a selection because 
of hail, floods, or other factors. Duplicate or triplicate plantings 
also afford an opportunity to study the behavior of the selection 
under a wider range of soil and climatic conditions. 
While this method of nurse planting seems to be especially well 
suited to the needs of breeders, it is possible also that such a method 
would prove advantageous to the farmer who pays a high price for 
a small quantity of select seed. It appears that he could thus in- 
crease his seed to an extent that would enable him to plant his entire 
farm one or two years sooner than if he employed the usual method 
of increase. In order to avoid all danger of crossing, however, it 
probably would be best for farmers to use beans or peas as a nurse 
crop instead of different types of cotton. 
A way in which nurse planting small stocks of cotton seed could 
be of immediate practical importance is in connection with the con- 
gressional distribution of seed. The method of distribution is, first, 
to send out quart packages of superior seed and follow these the 
second year with half-bushel lots to those farmers who show by their 
care of the quart samples and their report on the behavior of the 
varieties the proper interest in establishing and maintaining a seed 
supply. By nurse planting his half bushel of seed a farmer could 
obtain a much greater increase of the variety than would be pos- 
sible by the usual methods of planting. 
SUMMARY. 
The present methods of increasing select cotton are wasteful. The 
number of seeds planted far exceeds the number of plants that can 
be left to mature. Usually 50 to 75 per cent of the seedlings are 
destroyed at the time of thinning. 
The method herein suggested substitutes other seeds, those of a dis- 
tinct type of cotton or of beans or peas, for those select cotton seeds 
that produce surplus plants. Thus, in thinning, the number of se- 
lect seedlings that have to be destroyed is greatly reduced, most of 
the surplus plants representing other seeds (beans or peas). These 
plants are as effective as the select plants in breaking through a soil 
crust, which is the chief purpose of planting at a high rate. 
At San Antonio. Tex., where experiments were conducted, suc- 
cessful plantings of seed mixtures were made by improved methods 
in hills and in drills with both hand and mechanical corn planters. 
The use of corn planters for planting cotton seed was made pos- 
sible by delinting the cotton with sulphuric acid. 
By utilizing this method of nurse planting in increasing cotton 
selections, it is believed that a gain of at least one year and prob- 
ably three years in time can be effected, as 30 to GO per cent more 
land may be planted each year with select seed than is possible by 
present methods. 
■WASHINGTON : GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1918 
