EXPERIMENTS WITH SINGLE-STALK COTTON CULTURE. 9 
or other local conditions would tend to be equalized by the alter- 
nate-row method of comparing the two systems of culture. But 
more numerous and wider skips often appear in wide-spaced rows 
on account of injury to seedlings, due to greater exposure in the 
early stages of their development. Fewer plants are injured in 
single-stalk rows because of the mutual protection afforded by the 
thick-standing seedlings, and such injuries as occur are rendered 
unimportant because enough plants remain to thin as desired. This 
feature has been previously pointed out as one of the many advan- 
tages of later thinning. 1 
There were 16 rows in the experiment, the two systems being 
compared in alternate rows. Two pickings were made, but the yields 
from onlv the first picking were reported. These are shown in 
Table IV." 
Table 
IV. — Row yields of the first picking obtained in a single-stalk culture experiment 
with cotton conducted in 1915 on the Killarney Plantation at Mounds, La. 
Row. 
Yield of seed cot- 
ton (pounds). 
Row. 
Yield of seed cot- 
ton (pounds). 
Single 
stalk. 
Old 
method. 
Single 
stalk. 
Old 
method. 
No. 1 
35 
43 
33 
38 
35 
32 
29 
28 
24 
26 
25 
28 
1 
No. 7 
38 
33 
27 
No. 2 
No. 8 
20 
No 3 
Total 
No. 4 
• 287 
80 
39 
207 
No. 5 
Difference 
No. 6 
Increase per cent . . 
Table IV shows that in this experiment single-stalk rows yielded 
more cotton in every instance than adjoining old-system rows, the 
total increase for the first picking being 39 per cent. Judging by the 
appearance of the rows in August, when counts of immature bolls 
were made by Mr. Watson and the writer, showing 75 to 100 per cent 
more bolls on the single-stalk rows than on the others, it is believed 
that the difference in yield from the second picking, had it been 
recorded, would have been even greater than 39 per cent. But even 
if it were no greater, or considerably less, the difference in the first 
picking is of marked significance, since the experiment was located 
in a section of maximum boll-weevil infestation, where earliness in 
the cotton crop is of the greatest importance. 
The Boney experiment. — This experiment was on sandy soil located 
on the farm of Mr. R. K. Boney, at Duckport. Half-and-Half cotton 
was planted under fairly desirable conditions (date and rate not 
reported) and a good stand was secured. Definite details concerning 
the time of thinning the old-method rows and their condition when 
thinned were not reported. The plants in these rows were spaced, 
1 See Cook, O. F. Leaf-cut, or tomosis, a disorder of cotton seedlings. In U. S. Dept. Agr., Bur. Plant 
Indus. Cir. 120, p. 29-34, 1 fig. 1913. 
75103°— 18— Bull. 526 2 
