129 
The cultural method begins with thorough preparation of land in 
the fall, winter, or early spring for the succeeding crop, by which 
means hibernating pupie in the soil are in many cases destroyed. As 
a female moth appearing in the spring from a hibernated pupa may be 
the progenitor of many thousands of bollworms by early August, the 
importance of their destruction by thorough fall and winter plowing is 
evident. 
Experiments made with fertilizers during 1904 on several types of 
soil, including the so-called sandy soils of east Texas, the post oak, 
ora}^ prairie, river bottom, and black waxy soils of central and north 
r«^xas indicate that these are very useful in the production of an early 
;iiul large crop of cotton (see PL XX for views on one of the Depart- 
ment's experimental farms in 1904). The accompanying diagram (fig. 
27), compares the yield, with respect to earliness and quantity of 
o/ir£:^ 
AUG. SEPT OCT. NOV, 
30 4 9 14 19 2a 29 a 9 14 (9 24 29 i 8 I3 i8 23 28 
7 000 
6 500 
- ;;;;;;;;::: :: = : ==^=?r;^'" 
y . 
5 500 
T 
t'. 
^ 4500 
/ 
J 3500 
I30OO 
^2 500 
2 000 
1500 
1000 
500 
;■ ■ 
I .■■" %■■■ '■'>■" 
X- \. ■■■■'- ::::::::::: 
/' 
/ y 
/ 
,( i,' 
( < 
"^^o7M'o^%l^;;^°^^ lOli'lO^* .0^* ,0§* .O^W Sfe* 1 
Fig. 27— Diagram showing comparative earliness and quantity of cotton crop from fertilized and 
unfertilized plats (from Quaintance and Bishopp). 
seed cotton, from two plats of the experiment farm at Pittsburg, Tex. 
Plat 1 was treated with a fertilizer analyzing phosphoric acid 10 per 
cent, potash 2 per cent, at the rate of 300 pounds per acre. Plat 4 
was unfertilized, the treatment in all other respects being the same. 
Specific recommendations as to the quantity per acre and kind of 
fertilizers to be used may not be given as the result of one year's 
experimentation. Simply the fact of their utility is pointed out. 
Planters should arrange for a series of tests calculated to answer these 
respective questions for their own soils. 
Of equal importance is the use of seed of varieties with an inherent 
tendenc}^ to begin fruiting earl}^ in the growth of the plant, thus 
insuring an early crop (see PL XXI, illustrating comparative matur- 
ity of King and Myers cotton treated the same throughout the 
