22 BULLETIN 742, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
permits economy of the water supply may permit the ultimate exten- 
sion of the irrigated area. 
Another advantage of cotton as a crop: for the irrigated Southwest 
is the fact that the product is a staple and nonperishable commodity. 
Practically all of the other crops yielding high cash returns per acre 
are perishable and involve the hazard of deterioration or total loss 
if the market is temporarily oversupplied. Cotton, on the other 
hand, is not subject to rapid deterioration if properly. protected and 
need not be sold while prices are unsatisfactory. 
TILLAGE METHODS. 
Methods of preparing the land for Egyptian cotton and of irrigat- 
ing and cultivating the crop have been described in an earlier pub- 
lication of the Department of Agriculture The essential features 
of these methods are: Early and thorough preparation of the land; 
careful leveling, so that the entire field can be irrigated uniformly; 
early planting, with precautions for getting: the seed into moist. soil, 
so that prompt germination and good stands’ can be secured;? 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 irriga- 
tion after blossoming begins until the crop is fully matured. 
Unless the land is properly leveled satisfactory control of irriga- 
tion is out of the question. In some parts of a field the cotton may 
fail to germinate or may remain stunted by drought, while elsewhere 
in the same field the crop may suffer for the opposite reason, over- 
watering of the plants, which results in too luxuriant growth, late 
opening of the bolls, greater damage from frost, and more difficult 
picking. Planting early is desirable not only to secure the advantage 
of the longer season but because the young plants are hkely to show 
more normal habits of branching and fruiting if very hot weather is 
not encountered during the early stages of growth. Withholding 
irrigation from the young plants has the same object of avoiding too 
rapid growth, and the methods of thinning and spacing permit ad- 
ditional control of the behavior of the plants in the interest of early 
and abundant fruiting. Overluxuriance and late bearing are among 
the most frequent causes of low yields. 
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 
1 Hudson, E. W. Growing Egyptian Cotton in the Salt River Valley, Arizona. U. S. 
Dept. Agr., Farmers’ Bul. 577, 8 p. 1914. 
~2A4 method of accomplishing this has been described. See Hastings, S. H.. A lister 
attachment for a cotton planter, U. S. Dept. Agr., C. P. & B. I. Cir. 2, 3 p., 1 fig., 1917. 
