COTTO N 
WILT 
A NATIONAL PROBLEM 
By GEORGE J. Wilds, Director of Plant Breeding 
A FEW years back cotton wilt was thought to be the 
problem of only a few unfortunate growers in limited 
sections. Year by year wilt has spread until today there 
are few farms in the Coastal Plain area of the cotton 
belt that have not been invaded by this pest. Nor is it 
limited to the Coastal Plains, but is spreading to many 
sections of the Piedmont and Delta regions. It is no 
longer a local but a south-wide problem. At the present 
rate of increase, within a few years, none but wilt- 
resistant cottons can be profitably grown in most regions. 
Problem Complicated by New Biologic Forms of Wilt 
(Fusarium Vasinfectum) 
We have discovered in recent years that there are at 
least three biologic forms of wilt and have strong evidence 
pointing to a fourth. A cotton may be resistant to one 
or two of these forms and susceptible to the third. There 
are probably other forms that will later be discovered. 
The problem of wilt breeding in sections where cottons 
are continuously planted on wilt lands may soon compare 
with that of breeding for rust resistance in cereals. 
Prior to 1931 we foresaw what the breeders of wilt 
cottons were probably faced with. In our 1931 Spring 
Catalog, bottom of page 26, the writer stated: 
“We have noted further that all wilt-resistant cot¬ 
tons do not hold up equally well when tested on wilt 
soils in different sections of the Coastal Plain. This 
indicates that we may have different biologic forms 
of Fusarium wilt, the same as we have in oat smuts 
and wheat rusts.” 
And in our 1935 Spring Catalog in an article on New 
Biologic Forms of Wilt, page 15: 
“Most breeders of wilt cotton have within the past 
few years received occasional complaints from pur¬ 
chasers about their cotton wilting. We know of at 
least one instance where suit was brought. These 
cases have been investigated and as there was root 
knot or nematode damage it has been attributed to 
this. This was hard to understand. We have plenty of 
nematode present in all our wilt-breeding plots and 
yet these cottons usually go through almost 100% 
there. We decided that ‘no cotton would stand up 
under heavy infestation of both wilt and nematode.’ 
(Continued on inside page) 
This field was selected for one of 
our Wilt Breeding and Test Plots. 
