Treatment of Cotton Seed 
37 
In 1922, diseased seed which had grown in 1921 and which had been 
treated in the new seed-treating machine described above were planted 
on the farms of the two branch stations near Willard and Rocky Mount, 
N. C. This land had not been in cotton for at least two years. The seed 
planted near Rocky Mount had been given a preliminary drying at an 
average temperature of 51° C. for 24 hours and were then heated at the 
average temperature of 90° C. for 22 hours. The treated seed plot con¬ 
sisted of 15 rows averaging 205 plants each and the untreated seed plot, 
which was located at a distance of 8 rods from the treated seed plot and 
separated from it by a corn field, consisted of 19 rows of 120 plants each. 
The seed planted near Willard had been dried at an average temperature 
of 50° C. for 24 hours, then heated at an average temperature of 80° for 
70 hours. The treated plot consisted of 18 rows averaging 190 plants 
each and the untreated plot, 40 rods away comprised three rows about 
80 rods long. At each farm the treated and untreated seed plots received 
the same fertilizer application and cultural treatment. 
The tests on these two farms were examined twice during August. At 
the Willard station on August 9, an average of 4 to 5 per cent of the 
plants on the treated seed plot bore one or more bolls diseased with 
anthracnose while 17 per cent of the plants on the untreated plot bore 
one or more affected bolls. On August 30, 30.2 per cent, or 426, of the 
1442 plants examined on the treated seed plot bore one or more diseased 
bolls while 45.7 per cent, or 86 out of 407, plants examined on the un¬ 
treated seed plot bore diseased bolls. All the bolls on many plants of 
the check plot were infected while this was not the case on the treated 
seed plot. Although the treatment given the seed planted at Willard 
does not appear to have eliminated the disease, it did result in a later 
appearance and less damage from the disease in the field. At the farm 
near Rocky Mount, on August 9, only one diseased boll could be found by 
careful search over all the plants on the treated seed plot while an average 
of 2 to 3 per cent of the plants on the untreated seeti plot bore bolls in¬ 
fected with anthracnose. On August 28, only 20 plants out of 2774 ex¬ 
amined, a percentage of 0.7 per cent, on the treated seed plot were diseased; 
all but four of these were distributed in a small area as if they had become 
diseased as a result of secondary infections arising from the locus of a 
single diseased plant. Of the 777 plants examined, 178, or 22.9 per cent, 
on the untreated seed plot possessed one or more infected bolls. 
While it appears that the anthracnose fungus was killed in nearly all 
the seeds of the treated lot, it also appears that the treatment was not 
sufficiently severe to completely eradicate the disease from the seed. 
In 1923, diseased seed grown in the summer of 1922 was treated and 
planted at four different locations in the State, namely: on the farm of 
Mr. J. E. Dougherty, near New Bern, N. C., and on each of the three Branch 
Experiment Station farms near Willard, Rocky Mount and Statesville, 
N. C. The cotton on the farm of Mr. Dougherty exhibited, on August 14, 
vigorous vegetative growth, but nearly all the bolls had fallen off because of 
excessively wet weather and unusual boll weevil activity. No anthracnose 
was found on either the treated or untreated seed plots. The seed on the 
farm near Rocky Mount was planted late, which factor combined with 
