8 BULLETIN 526, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Table III shows that the increase in yield from each picking 
favored single-stalk culture by 28.8, 18.6, and 26.1 per cent, respec- 
tively, giving a total increase of 23.9 per cent. 
MADISON PARISH. 1 
Three experiments were conducted in Madison Parish, located at 
intervals of about 5 miles between Tallulah and Delta Point, the 
latter bordering on the Mississippi River. Two of these were on sandy 
alluvial soil, and the other was on heavy buckshot soil, both soils 
being fairly representative of types found in that section, known as 
the Delta. In all cases the cotton was planted on low beds in rows 
about 4 feet apart. Spring conditions were unfavorable generally, 
a wet March being followed by drought through April and May. 
The Killarney experiment. — This experiment was on buckshot soil 
located on the Killarney Plantation, at Mounds. Owing to the poor 
stand obtained from the first planting, a second planting of Simpkins 
cotton was made on April 15, and a fairly good stand was secured. 
On June 3, a few plants from the first planting were visible in the 
single-stalk rows and it was suggested that at thinning time, about 
a week distant, these older plants be removed, since there were 
enough of the younger plants for single-stalk purposes. To leave 
the older ones would have resulted in nonuniformity. Air. T. I. 
Watson, parish agent, directed this later thinning. 
The old-method rows were thinned on May 22, when the plants, 
4 to 6 inches high and with 3 to 5 leaves, were spaced 18 to 30 inches 
apart. The single-stalk plants, thinned on June 12, when they were 
8 to 10 inches high and had 6 to 8 leaves, were spaced 8 to 10 inches 
apart. 
In practically all of the rows of this experiment there were a few 
skips 3 feet or more in length. Toward the end of the season the 
skips appeared to be greater in the aggregate in the wide-spaced 
rows than in the single-stalk rows, and this was doubtless a factor 
in the increased yields, as often occurs with the new system. Prior 
to the time of thinning the wide-spaced rows, the stand of all the 
rows was so uniform that no appreciable differences in the number 
and length of skips per row were perceptible. Any differences of soil 
1 In reporting the yields from the experiments made in Madison Parish, Parish Agent T. I. Watson 
told of the results of an informal experiment with single-stalk culture conducted on his own initiative by 
Mr. N. C Williamson, of MUliMn, East Carroll Parish, La. Mr. Williamson applied single-stalk culture 
on 2 acres. Of the yields obtained, Mr. Watson said: 
I was at his [Williamson's] place on November 24 and secured his yield, which was 1,300 pounds of lint 
from the 2 acres, or an average of 650 pounds of lint per acre. His general crop is making about 1,280 
pounds of seed cotton per acre, or 80 bales on 100 acres. Mr. Williamson does not consider that he carried 
out the method fully enough to be recognized as an experiment, but thinks well of it and says he is going 
to try it out next year. 
Mr. Williamson's crop of 80 bales of lint from 100 acres is equivalent to about 400 pounds of lint per acre. 
Compared with this, as reported by Mr. Watson, the 2 acres of cotton grown by the single-stalk method 
yielded an average of 650 pounds of lint. On the basis of these figures, it is seen that single-stalk culture 
yielded 250 pounds of lint per acre, or about 62 per cent, more than the old method. 
