1 Ocr., 1902.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 265 
Tropical Industries. 
COTTON-GROWING, No. 2. 
By DANIEL JONES, Department of Agriculture. 
THINNING THE Crop. 
The value of cotton seed as a cattle food no less than as a factor of value 
in many of our manufacturing industries points out that economy in sowing is 
a virtue that must not be ignored. There are times, however, when the planter, 
not being thoroughly acquainted with the vitality or germinating value of the 
seed, or mistrusting weather indications, may sow more thickly than is, under 
other conditions, necessary. In this event, thinning out to standard distances 
must be resorted to. If good seed is sown, in a few days the little plants will 
be up in clusters of three or four or perhaps singly, but an inch or so apart. As 
cotton will not thrive under such conditions, the plants must be thinned out to 
give proper space for vigorous growth. Much discrimination is called for in 
treating the plant at this stage. To begin thinning too early is not advisable 
for many reasons. The attack of insect pests, such as crickets and some of the 
beetle tribe, will in some seasons account for the destruction of numbers of the 
young plants. Sometimes an excessive fall of rain will wash out the drills, or 
an occasional hailstorm do some damage to the plants while in their tender 
stage. The process of cultivation will also to some extent be responsible for 
the loss of a few more, especially if tilling with implements hard to guide or 
using horses that will persist in treading on the drills in spite of the efforts of 
the workman. ‘These area few reasons why the thinning-out process should 
not be carried out until such time as these risks are no further to be 
encountered. It is usually advisable to keep a sharp watch on the attacks of 
crickets, as in some seasons they become very numerous, and every effort should 
be made to compass their destruction. 
The first thinning should be done when the plants are from4 to 6 inches high. 
Plants reaching the height of 12 to 18 inches or so may reasonably be regarded as 
safely past the critical stage of their young growth, and can be thinned out to 
the distance determined on by the planter. Upland varieties should stand 
about from 2 to 8 feet apart in the drills and 4: feet 6 inches in the rows. These 
spaces give ample room for the spread of the more dwarf varieties of Upland 
cotton, but for the Sea Island or Egyptian sorts the limits must be increased. 
The process of thinning will need at times to be a manual operation. Two or 
three cotton plants growing together in one cluster cannot be separated other- 
wise. The Dutch hoe will at times prove a very useful implement to use, as 
well as the common chipping hoe. As cotton is a hoed crop, the workman will 
attend to thinning out as he carries on his hoeing operations. Frequently 
considerable assistance can be rendered by the farm hand in his tillage operation. 
The skilful handling of the horse hoe, the insertion of the side tine either under 
a cluster of plants or penctrating the drill, will often economically account for 
many a surplus plant that, left alone, would otherwise mean personal handling 
to get out of the drill. There is no very definite plan that can be adopted in 
deciding the question as to the number of plants prudent to leave: it must be 
decided by the farmer, who has to consider his climatic conditions, character of 
soil, and the variety of cotton he proposes to grow. The extremes of over- 
crowding or overspreading plants must be avoided, as in the one instance a 
stunted, imperfect shrub will be the result, with little cotton, while on the 
other hand the shrubs will outgrow rational bounds and the crop will be 
insignificant. The intention of the planter to prune his shrub for the first or 
succeeding years will also have a reference to the question of close or wide 
