PRODUCTION OF AMERICAN EGYPTIAN COTTON. 23 
thought necessary at first to plant the rows wide apart (as much as 
5 feet) and to thin severely, leaving the plants finally 24 to 8 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 ” 
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 sometimes 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 nu- 
merous vegetative branches made the picking very difficult and ex- 
pensive. 
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. 
The best spacing distance for the plants has been found to depend 
somewhat upon local and seasonal conditions. Mr. E. W. Hudson 
states that on rich alfalfa. land and with irrigation properly managed 
6 to 8 inches is about‘the right distance, while on new land the plants 
can safely be left 4 inches apart. This conclusion was reached, how- 
ever, as a result of experiments with the Yuma variety.’ Plants of 
the Pima variety, being less inclined to become limby and having 
their lower fruiting branches better developed, should probably be 
spaced not closer than 10 to 12 inches on rich land. The thinning 
should be done in such a way as to result in suppressing practically 
all of the vegetative branches without stunting the growth of the 
central stem or shading too much the lower fruiting branches. 
If growth becomes more luxuriant than was expected at the time 
of thinning, injurious crowding may still be avoided by taking out 
every second or third plant. Another expedient is the cutting out 
of every third row, which may be justified under extreme conditions 
of luxuriarice, even after the plants have reached the flowering state, 
in order to koa the vegetation from becoming too dense to permit 
a normal development a the fruiting Iranches That more space 
is required for plants that have not been held in check sufficiently 
in the early stages does not mean that advantages could be gained 
by wide spacing at first, which would result in still larger numbers 
of vegetative branches. The principle to be kept in mind is that 
the suppression of the vegetative branches makes it possible to 
of the investigations, as well as the cultural recommendations resulting from them, have 
been published in several bulletins and circulars, for the titles af which see une last 
section of this paper on the literature of the industry. 
