24 BULLETIN 332, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
and irrigation if reasonable profits are to be obtained from the pro- 
duction of this crop. Even with the abnormally low prices obtaining 
last year, this farmer made a fair profit on his investment. 
TILLAGE METHODS. 
The best methods of preparing the land for Egyptian cotton and 
of irrigating and cultivating the crop have been worked out by Mr. 
E. W. Hudson, superintendent of the Cooperative Testing and 
Demonstration Garden at Sacaton, Ariz., and are described by 
him in a recent publication of the Department of Agriculture. 1 
The essential features of these methods consist in the early and 
thorough preparation of the land ; careful leveling, so that the entire 
field can be irrigated uniformly; early planting; getting the seed 
into moist soil; late thinning; leaving the plants close together in 
the row ; the sparing use of irrigation water until the plants blossom ; 
thorough cultivation as long as the size of the plants permits; and 
frequent light irrigation after blossoming begins until the crop is 
fulh 7 matured. 
LATE THINNING AND CLOSE SPACING. 
The Egyptian-cotton plant makes a very luxuriant growth on the 
irrigated lands of the Southwest. Because of this fact, it was 
thought necessary at first to plant the rows wide apart (as much as 
5 feet) and to thin severely, leaving the plants finally 2^ to 3 feet 
apart in the row. Under these conditions each plant attained a 
large size and produced several long vegetative branches, or " limbs." 
It was also customary at first to do the thinning, or " chopping " as 
it is called, when the plants were very small and had only two or 
three leaves in addition to the seed leaves. "While this system of 
planting and thinning gave good yields, it was found that the crop 
was so late in maturing as to be in danger of frost injury in the 
autumn, and also that the large size of the plants and their numerous 
vegetative branches made the picking very difficult and expensive. 
Closer investigation of the branching habits of the plant developed 
the fact that these troublesome vegetative branches could be sup- 
pressed by delaying the thinning until the plants are 8 to 10 inches 
high and have 10 to 12 normal leaves, and by leaving the plants 
closer together in the row. 2 
The best spacing distance for the plants has been found to depend 
somewhat upon local and seasonal conditions. Mr. E. W. Hudson 
1 Hudson, E. W. Growing Egyptian cotton in the Salt River Valley, Arizona. U. S. 
Dept. Agr., Farmers' Bui. 577, 8 p. 1914. 
- These investigations were made by Mr. O. F. Cook and his assistants, and the details, 
of the investigations, as well as the cultural recommendations resulting from them, have 
been published in several bulletins and circulars, for tbe titles of which see the last 
section of this paper on the literature of the industry. 
