18 BULLETIN 121, U. S. DEPAKTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
partment therefore can not recommend the Lewis variety for general 
planting in the Southeast except in cases where the grower is reason- 
ably assured of a substantial premium. He should have a premium 
not only over the price of short cotton, but over the price paid for 
other Upland 1^-inch cottons. If he can get a premium for his length 
of staple only, he can probably grow the more productive varieties 
with greater profit. 
COMPARISON OF EARLY AND LATE PICKED COTTON. 
It is interesting to follow the two bales of Webber through these 
tests and to note the differences between them. Both bales were 
middling in grade and came from the same field. Webber Xo. 1 
was picked and immediately ginned during the early part of Novem- 
ber, while Webber Xo. 2 was picked about one month earlier and 
was stored six weeks before ginning. The early picked bale shows 
better quality in the comber tests with both the close and wide set- 
tings. Adding picker, card, and invisible waste, we get for Webber 
No. 1. 15.11 per cent and for Webber No. 2, 15.12 per cent. These 
figures show that the grade governs the waste to this point. How- 
ever, on the 13 to 15 per cent comber setting, Webber Xo. 1 lost 13.07 
per cent and Webber Xo. 2, 11.56 per cent, a difference of 1.51 per 
cent in favor of Webber No. 2, while with the 23 to 25 per cent 
setting Webber No. 1 shows 21.81 per cent and Webber No. 2 shows 
18.10 per cent loss, a difference of 3.71 per cent in favor of the cotton 
picked early and stored before ginning. 
The values shown in the last column of Tables VIII and IX are 
also in favor of the Webber No. 2, as these values correspond with 
the percentage of comber wastes. 
The average breaking strength of the Webber Xo. 2 is measurably 
greater than that of Webber No. 1, as shown in Table X. 
We might infer from this showing that in normal seasons the 
earlier cotton is more desirable than the late pickings from the same 
field, even though the latter are of the same grade and have sustained 
no visible damage. There is a widespread belief that the length and 
strength of cotton increases when it is allowed to lie in bulk for some 
time between picking and ginning. In this test no difference in length 
was discernible, and the difference in the amount of short fiber taken 
out by the comber could hardly be attributed to storage. Greater 
strength is the only remaining factor of superiority in the Webber 
No. 2, and it is wholly unsafe to assume that this was due to storage. 
It would be necessary, in order to determine this point, to test bales 
picked at the same time, one of which had been stored in the seed. 
while the other had been immediately ginned. 
