TEXAS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATIONS

BULLETIN NO. 75

COTTON IN VESTIGATIONS

OF THE
BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY, U. S.~DEPARTMENT OF
AGRICULTURE

AND THE
TEXAS EXPERIMENT STATION

EARLY COTTONS

POSTOFFICE:
COLLEGE STATION, BRAZOS COUNTY, TEXAS
OCTOBER, 1904

TEXAS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATIONS

OFFICERS

GOVERNING BOARD.

(BOARD OF DIRECTORS A. AND M. COLLEGE.)

M. SANsOM, President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..Alvarado

F. A. REICHART . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..HOustOn

K. K. LEGGETT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..Abi1ene

GEO. T. jEsTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..COrsicana

W. j. CLAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Austin

A. HAIDUSEK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .LaGrange

L. D. AMsLER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Hempstead

A. j. BROWN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Dal1as

STATION OFFICERS.

DAVID F. HOUsTON, LL. D., President Of the College.

jOHN A. CRAIG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Dean and Director

H. H. HARRINGTON, M. S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Chemist

M. FRANCIS, D. V. M . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Veterinarian

F. S. jOHNsTON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Agriculturist

E. j. KYLE, M. S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .HOrticulturist

F. R. MARSHALL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Anima1 Husbandry

EDWARD C. GREEN, B. S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Assistant Horticulturist

G. S. FRAPs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .AssOciate Chemist

R. L. BENNETT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .C0tt0n Specialist

O. M. BALL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..BOtanist

j. G. HARRISON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..Bookkeeper

j. R. ROBERTSON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .F arm Superintendent

STATE SUB-STATIONS.

 K. ROBERTSON, Superintendent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Beevi11e, Bee County
W. S. HOTCHKISS, Superintendent . . . . . . . . . . ..TrOupe, Smith County

N 0TE.—The main station is located on the grounds of the Agricultural
and Mechanical College, in Brazos County. The postoffice address is
COLLEGE STA TION, TEXAS. Reports and bulletins are sent free
upon application to the Director.

.. AA/Luawmhnni‘ 

EARLY COTTONS.

BY R. L. BENNETT.

Investigations with different cottons planned by and in charge of
the writer were begun this season at College Station, Texas, by the
Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Department of Agriculture, through
the Laboratory of Plant Breeding and the Texas Experiment Station,
to secure information on the earliness of the cotton plant in the growth
of fruit. The urgent need for such information is readily seen when
it is understood, as Texas farmers understand it, that earliness is essen-
tial in making a successful crop where boll weevils destroy all late fruit
as fast as it is formed. The presence of boll weevils means a shortened
fruiting season.

While the work has been in progress only one season, and the results
are to that extent immature, yet some features of certain nature are

sufficiently conclusive to warrant a brief account of them at this time‘

when growers are specially concerned with the qualities of earliness and
productiveness in seed for planting their next crop. An advanced
statement of these results for use in seed selection appeared in the Texas
press September 10.

SOURCES OF SEED AND VARIETIES FOR THE INVESTI-
GATIONS.

For this work seed were obtained from originators and reliable
seedmen of the earliest cottons and of some 0f the best late cottons;
northern seed of good quality were obtained that had been grown for a
long time in the northern edge of the cotton region, northeast Arkansas,
and the Pan Handle of Texas; also common native seeds from south
and central Texas, at LaGrange, College and Waxahachie. The inten-
tion was to study early and late varieties, and cotton from north and
south edges of cotton region, and local seeds in their relations of growth
and earliness. The varieties are listed herewith: King, Shine, Toole,
Welborn, Herlong, Doughty, Drake, Boyd, Peerless, Peterkin, Hawkins
Excelsior, Russell, Truitt, Allen, Berry Big Boll, Rowdan, Jones’
Storm Proof, Bohemian, Jones’ Little Boll, Owens, Meyer, and three
Texas big bo-ll cottons.

The earliness of certain varieties and the earliness of seed from
different sources are important, since Texas farmers are importing
largely of early varieties and of common seed from far northern sec-
tions in the hope of gaining in early fruiting.

The seeds of the several varieties and sources were planted April 9,
twenty days later than they might have been planted but for the late
arrival of some of the seed. WVeevils appeared a few days after the
cotton came above ground, and were so numerous as to stop all fruiting
after July 20th; indeed they were so numerous that cotton planted June
8 did not grow an average count of one boll to the stalk, though the

4 TEXAS EXPERIMENT STATION.

stalks grew from four to five feet high before they were stripped by
caterpillars about September 25. The yield of the cottons planted April
9 was three-quarters of a bale per acre, with a few exceptions.

STRUCTURE OF THE COTTON PLANT IN ITS RELATION
TO EARLINESS AND PRODUCTIVENESS.

The cotton plant is made up of a main stem, primary and fruit
branches, and these are divided into joints, and at the joints in the axil
of the leaves on the fruit branches, fruit or bolls are grown.

In studying the early and late cottons as they grew and developed,
noting the rate of growth, rate and date of fruiting and measuring the
final extent of growth and yield it was found:

First——That the early and late cottons differed in length of joint,
i. e., space between successive leaves, or

Second—They differed in the presence or in the absence of fruit
limbs at the first joints on the main stem.

The early cottons had short joints and began the growth of fruit
limbs at the first joints on the main stem near the ground. See
Fig. 1. The joints or spaces between successive leaves must be
short, otherwise to produce the same number of bolls the plant would
have to be larger than could be grown in a season. It was found that
the late cottons had long joints or that fruit limbs were absent at the
first joints on the main stem near the ground.

By beginning the growth of fruit limbs at the base of the plant and
of fruit in the first leaf axil of the first fruit limb, plants matured this
first fruit early in their fruiting season. This early setting of fruit
was an additional advantage since such plants had a longer time in
which to fruit before the weevils became so numerous as to destroy
the later fruit as fast as it formed. Failure to grow fruit or fruit
limbs at the base of the plant shortens the fruiting season, as well as
makes the fruit late in appearing. See Figs. 3 and 4.

The length of fruit limbs and their number were found to be
important in determining the earliness of fruit. Many growing
points rapidly increase the number of joints at which the fruit or
squares form. But the joints must be short in order that a fruit limb of
reasonable length may accommodate several squares or bolls. Rapidity
of fruiting or the formation of many squares in any given time was,
therefore, found to be directly concerned with the length of joint, with
the number of growing fruit limbs, and with the rate of growth.

The structure of the plant as regards the length of joints and fruit
limbs is determined by forces inherent in the plant of normal growth,
and when the desired structure is once found its continuation is a
matter of seed selection. The rate of growth, however, is mainly
dependent on cultural conditions and food and water supply. When
a deficiency of food supply is remedied by fertilizers, the rate of growth
is increased, and a rapid formation of joints and squares occurs. Thus
the first or early formed fruit matures early in the fruiting season.

EARLY COTTON S. 0

FIG. 1.—-A short jointed, long fruit limb plant. An extremely early, productive cotton plant
on which fruiting began near the ground at the first joints on the main stem. The short joints of
the main stern and limbs are easily seen. There are only four primary limbs and the two older are
well fruited. Age 120 days, height 5 ft., bolls 70, 2 open, in lower half circle 54 grown bolls.

(Leaves removed)

MATURITY OF BOLLS ON EARLY AND LATE COTTONS.
AND OF BOLLS ON LITTLE AND BIG BOLL COTTONS.

In noting the time from appearance of square in leaf aXil to bloom
and full grown boll, it was found that practically the same period is
required in both the late and early cottons and also in both large and
small boll cottons. In the large boll cottons, a few days longer is
required for the bolls to dry out and open. At that stage of the bolls
this extra time in opening is no disadvantage, since they escape the

weevils as safely as do the small bolls on small boll cottons. Their"

6 TEXAS EXPERIMENT STATION.

FIG. Zx-A stalk of extreme length of ioints. Late fruiting and unproductive. Height 5V2 ft.,
age 100 days, bolls mature 19. This type of stalk could only increase 1ts fruit by growing many
primary limbs, but such are late, and requ1re much water.

equal escape is accounted for by the weevil’s habit of not molesting bolls
of any size until the squares are fed upon and destroyed. This is a
fortunate habit of the weevil, since the larger boll cottons are more
desirable for picking, are more storm proof, and because increasing
the size of the bolls is one of the two Ways of increasing the yield
of the cotton plant——the other is by increasing the number of bolls. A
few cottons have boll coverings of a nature that resists rapid drying
out after maturity and therefore are later in opening after maturity.
The College Entomological Department by actual count of bolls on over
1000 stalks of three big boll cottons and small boll King cotton, growing

EARLY COTTON s. 7

 

FIG. 3.——Late fruiting and unproductive stalk. The long joints are easily seen. The late
fruiting primary limbs are marked with cards. Age 105 days, height 31/2 ft., mature bolls 20,
in lower half circle 9 bolls. A longer time would be required to mature the upper fruit than
is afforded in boll weevil sections. ‘
side by side, found a few more weevil-injured bolls on the small boll
cotton.

If the time from appearance of square from terminal bud to mature
boll, not open boll, were less in some cottons, there would be little,
if any, advantage gained to the later formed squares on such cottons in
escaping the weevils. In order for a shorter period of maturity of
bolls to be of any advantage the joints would have to be shorter and
the rate of growth would have to be greater than other cottons whose
bolls require a longer time to mature. See bolls Fig 5.

RATE OF GROWTH.

If there is any practical difference in rate of growth of the several
cottons it was not observable, but as rate of growth is important for earli-

of plant 3

TEXAS EXPERIIWENT STATION.

cotton plant that was late in fruiting.
far out from the center and base of the stalk. The limbs have few joints and few

The joints are long and the bolls are
bolls. Height

ft., bolls 26, 10 in lower half circle. A late unproductive plant.

ness and as the rate dififers in individual plants, it is desirable to secure
in seed the quality of rapid growth and this is done when seed are
selected from the largest stalks of the desired type.

AWHAT IS AN EARLY COTTON.

From the observations of the cottons in this investi
mature cotton plant would seem to be defined as havin
main stem, with short jointed long fruit limbs (not wo
joint on the main stem; the relative length of fruit
with age from base of stalk upward; the first fruit limbs should be at
the first joints on the main stem; the first fruit in the first leaf axil or
joint of the first fruit limb and successively at each joint on all fruit
limbs to the close of the season. The larger the bolls, the greater will

gation, an early
g a short jointed
od limbs) at each
limbs decreasing

1O

EARLY COTTONS.

be the yield. Such a plant fruits earliest, moist rapidly, is earliest
in maturing fruit and is most productive. The highest development
of such a plant is a matter of seed selection, and with the type defined,
stalks nearest approaching the type can be recognized in a field when
picking without previously watching and marking those that happen to
open the first boll. See Fig. 1.

VARIETIES.

There are some traditional inaccuracies in the information regard-
ing varieties of cotton and the cotton plant that need correcting in
order that seed selection and breeding of earlier and better cottons
may be accurately done.

It is held that early cottons necessarily have small bolls, and that
the fiber is consequently short. Regarding the question that small boll

cottons have short staple as a consequence of the smallness of the boll——

such a conclusion is incorrect. More varieties of long staple have small
bolls than otherwise. The Alabama Experiment Station has weighed
and made public the weight of bolls of many long and short staple
cottons, and a few of the weights of some of the most important long
staple cottons and of one short staple cotton are given herewith:

King cotton, short staple, bolls required to pound seed cotton . . . . . . 81
Moon cotton, long staple, bolls required to pound seed cotton . . . . . . 83
Allen Hybrid,~long staple, bolls required to pound seed cotton . . . . . . 86
Sea Island, long staple, bolls required to pound seed cotton . . . . . . . .130

To the question that early cottons necessarily have small bolls—such
a necessity does not exist. And if there were no early big boll cottons
in cultivation at the present time, some could be made early by seed
selection. Py selection, big boll cottons could be made to grow fruit
limbs at the first joints on main stem and to grow short joints, and to
grow fruit in first leaf axil of first fruit limbs. Such a plant would
be early in the same way that other cottons are early.

From the observations that have been published at some experiment
stations on appearance of bloom and opening of bolls, it does not fol—
low that a long staple boll requires any greater time to mature than a
short staple boll.

Likewise, the ancient opinion is passed that long staple can be
grown only on low, moist land. It can and is grown equally well on
vpland.

Long staple upland cottons have been bred up by selection and the
breeders have given most thought and attention to length of staple,
and little or no attention to earliness. As a result the long staple
varieties are mainly late. Doubtless, from this fact the opinion had
its beginning—that long staple cottons are necessarily late.

If there is any dependent relation of long staple on long joint and
boll stern it would appear that short staples would hardly remain short
on long jointed stalks—but thereare many of them. T

There must be a frame structure of stalk that will contain the
most cotton or the most bolls and meet economic demands for
earliness of the full crop of bolls, ease of picking, etc. The short

 

_F1G. 5.—Co_tton bolls vary in size and yield with different varieties. The large bolls are more
desirable for p1ck1ng,for retention of cotton in open burrs and for greater yield. Illustration
one-sixteenth less than natural size. Spaces 0n scale equal one inch.

EARLY COTTONS. 11

fruit limb and cluster style or type of stalk structure, growers contend
do not meet those demands.

On soils where the water supply is too free the tendency is for the
joints to become longer, but this tendency can be overcome by seed
selection, and if seed are not selected the plants in time become long
jointed, late and unproductive in a short fruiting season. For this rea-
son moist bottom lands are not desirable for growing planting seed.
Productive or fertilized dry upland soils grow the best seed.

In our tests of seeds and varieties this season at College on sandy
loam land, at Waxahachie on high black waxy land, at San Angelo
on sandy loam, there was some difference in yield and extent of
growth of the different cottons. At College on sandy loam soil and
weevils present, all varieties and seeds, with exceptions noted, made
practically the same yield—three-quarters of a bale. At Waxahachie,
the big boll Texas common seeds made more cotton in the same time
than several of the varieties and were exceeded by selected seed of three
or four eastern cottons which are not considered early. Similar yields
were made at San Angelo.

Growers are advised, where they are unable to find satisfactory early
cotton on the market, to select seed for earliness and productiveness
from a cotton that they have known for a long time as having been uni-
formly productive and satisfactory in their locality.

SEED SELECTION.

A cotton plant that has the desirable qualities of earliness and pro-
ductiveness requires careful seed selection for the maintenance and
improvement of those qualities. The growers constant desire is to
increase the yield of his cotton, and the only way of doing that in the
plant—not outside, culturally——lies in two directions: increasing the
number of bolls and increasing the size. With the fruiting season made
short by’ weevils, it is evident that the plant must begin fruiting early
in its growth as near the ground as possible, and then with short joints
the greatest number of bolls can be made in the shortened season. Hav-
ing found and defined the type of plant or stalk for greatest earliness
and productiveness, resort must be had to seed selection to maintain
these qualities and to improve them. If seed are annually taken from
the most perfect and largest of the above defined type, it fixes these
important features in a greater intensity in all plants and improves the
features at the same time. With such a developed plant the grower
has only to provide the best cultural conditions and food, if that is
necessary, for maximum earliness and productiveness of the cotton
plant.

l  l

l
, a 1
l l l l

In. scale=% natural s1ze

FIG. 6.—-C0tton burrs, front and rear, showing difference in structure. The small, thin burrs
open fiat and twist backward removing all support to the locks and they fall out. Blg tough
burrs do not fold back and leave the locks unsupported.

EARLY COTTON s. 13

IMPORTED SMALL BOLL SHORT STAPLE CAROLINA
SEED.

Selected pure seed of such cottons when brought to Texas yield
fairly well on some soils when rainfall is sufficient, though the bolls
are very small and the staple short. There is only enough, however, of
selected pure seed of these cottons any year to plant a small area,
and to bring the common seed of such cotton in lieu of pure seed is
inadvisable. There is every reason why Texas growers should look
at home for better cottons, and through seed selection, rather than to
remote regions, since they have no cottons better adapted to Texas
than seed selected for earliness from the native Texas big boll good
staple cottons.

EARLINESS OE NORTHERN SEED.

The extreme northern seed used in these investigations had been
grown in extreme north Arkansas and the Panhandle of Texas so long
that the original sources of the cottons and their original names were
forgotten. From this we concluded that the seed had been grown
north for a sufficient length of time to have become earlier, if any such
influence were exerted on cotton by northern latitude. The structure
of the plant and rate of growth and maturity of fruit of these seeds
did not differ to any observable extent from plants from other seed. In
referring to the structure of the upland cotton plant for differences that
determine earliness, it is evident that plants from these northern seed,
in order to be earlier, should either have fruited nearer the base of the
stalk, or have had shorter joints, or have grown faster than those from
some other seeds. Ordinarily, one season’s experiments or tests of one
lot of seed are not conclusive, but the structure of the stalks and the
rate of growth in relation to earliness are conclusive that northern lati-
tude has not yet exerted any practical, if any appreciable, influence on
the earliness of the cotton plant.

Selection of seed from stalks of proper structure grown on the
proper kind of soil must be the means for securing earliness, and not
northern latitudes.

STORM-PROOF COTTONS.

From these investigations the qualities that make some cottons more
resistant to storms were found and described. The large tough boll
cottons lose lesscotton from “falling out” and from winds and rains
than small, thin boll cottons. Such bolls do not open so widely nor
does the burr behind the locks twist back and leave the locks unsup-
ported. Retention of cotton in burrs gives the grower more time to
pick with a limited force and saves loss and damage to the cotton. Big
boll native cottons were more storm-proof than any imported cottons.
See Fig. 6.

FERTILIZING COTTON FOR EARLINESS.

BY R. L. BENNETT.

The extensive use of commercial fertilizers on cotton in the South
has not been to hurry the growth of the plant that it might make a
full crop in a short time, but it has been to increase the yield on
more or less exhausted soils. In Texas, where the soils are fresher and
where the growing and fruiting season has been long, from frost to
frost, a fair crop on all soils has been made without the use of fertilizers,
and were not the length of the fruiting season interfered with now
by the boll weevil, fair crops could still be continued for some years.
Texas growers, however, are now facing a sudden decreased yield, not
from soil exhaustion, but from a shortened fruiting season, due to the
boll weevil becoming so numerous in the latter part of the fruiting sea-
son of each year as to stop all fruiting. In the early part of the sea-
son they do damage, but perhaps the squares destroyed then simply
lessen the number that would later fall off or shed. With the shortened
fruiting season the plant must be made to grow so fast that it will make
in the shorter time as much, if not more, than it formerly did while
growing slower and through a long season. When cultural methods
are good a rapid growth can be induced by feeding or fertilizing. Fer-
tilizing increases yield on soils more or less exhausted and has been
studied for a long time and is well understood in a practical way. But
the question of fertilizing for rapid growth in a short season is some-
what new; though the practice is, however, the same as that of fertiliz-
ing for making better yields on exhausted soils. With the boll weevil
shortening the fruiting season, fertilizing is almost as necessary for
making profitable crops on the thinner uplands of the State as it is on
the exhausted soils of the southeastern States.

Fertilizing cotton may be briefly defined as being nothing more than
feeding the plant digestible plant food on soils not possessed of a suffi-
ciency of such foods.

Investigations were undertaken this year by the Bureau of Plant
Industry, U. S. Department of Agriculture, and the Texas Experiment
Station.

First, to get information as to the effect of the three fertilizing ele-
ments on the earliness of the cotton plant.

Second, to get some data as to the relative yield of cotton in a short
fruiting season when fertilized and not fertilized.

Third, to learn the way that fertilizers cause an early maturity of
the cotton crop.

The investigation was begun in March, 1904, at College Station,
and in duplicate at Waxahachie, Ellis County, and in the Brazos bot-
toms. The soil at College Station is what is locally known as poor
soil. It is rather level, of a loamy nature, underlaid from six to twelve
inches with tough hard clay, and originally grew scrub post oak. About
two-fifths bale per acre was said to be the average yield under the
treatment given before weevils appeared. This soil grew sorghum the

EARLY COTTONS. 15

previous year, and in December the sorghum stubble was turned under,
and in early March the ground was run off in rows with a broad shovel,
and into these furrows the fertilizers were distributed by hand and
then bedded on. The seed of an early variety of cotton was planted
April 9, twenty days later than it should have been planted or than
adjacent cotton was planted. The delay in arrival of seed delayed plant-
ing, and shortened the fruiting season twenty days, and shortened the
yield an unknown amount. Phosphoric acid, nitrogen and potash, the
elements of plant food applied to soils, were used in this work as acid
phosphate, sulphate of ammonia and kainit. Each was applied in small,
medium and excessive amounts, and also the three were mixed in like
amounts, as follows:

Acid phosphate 100, 200 and 500 pounds per acre.
Potash or kainit, 100, 200 and 500 pounds per acre.
Nitrogen or sulphate of ammonia, 250 and 500 pounds per acre.

The mixture was made of 1 part kainit, 1% parts cotton meal for
nitrogen and 2 parts of acid phosphate. This combination was applied
at the rate of 225 and 600 pounds per acre.

Kainit contained 12 per cent potash; acid phosphate, 14 per cent
available phosphoric acid; sulphate of ammonia contained 20% per cent
of nitrogen—as analyzed by Dr. Fraps of the College. Nitrate of soda
was used in place of sulphate of ammonia in the Brazos bottoms and
at Waxahachie.

EFFECT OF EACH ELEMENT OF PLANT FOOD OR FERTIL-
IZER ON THE COTTON PLANT IN YIELD OF COTTON.

Of the effects of these three elements, it has been held that nitrogen

would hasten growth but would delay maturity; that potash would
delay maturity; and that phosphoric acid would hasten fruiting and ma-
turity. If either of these elements exist in the soil in too small quantity
the plant makes a poor growth, but if all are present in abundance and
in an available form, the plant grows rapidly when water and heat are
favorable. I was unable to observe any difference in the cottons in
the way suggested above as effecting maturity, either at College, Waxa-
hachie or in the Brazos bottoms. Potash apparently did not affect the
plant either harmfully or beneficially, neither did the nitrogen. But
acid phosphate at College made an astonishingly rapid growth and
greatly increased the yield, its yield practically equalling cotton fed
with all three elements combined. Unquestionably, if there is an appre-
ciable influence to hurry or to delay maturity by any particular element
of plant food, it is of no practical consequence, but there is a most
decided increase of yield due to rapid growth when one or more of these
three elements are added to a soil that is deficient in them. The important
thing t0 know is which one 0r more the soil is deficient in, then by
adding t0 the soil the deficients, the cotton can get the needed food
and can make a rapid growth in a given time. It is immaterial which
is absent, for by supplying the deficiency the plant is enabled to grow
rapidly. Fertilizing, then, increases earliness and yield in a given time
by supplying abundant food to the plant, and rapid growth is a result.

16 TEXAS EXPERIlMENl‘ STATION.

Height or growth at College of the fertilized and nonfertilized cotton
in a given time is exhibited herewith:

Treatment Planted Measured Age Height Sqgtiliis to
Acid phosphate. . . ..April 9 June 13 05 days 18 inches 8 to 16
Nitrogen . . . . . . . . .April 9 June 13 65 days 6 to 9 inches 0 to 4
Potash . . . . . . . . . . .April 9 June 13 65 days 6 to 9 inches 0 to 4
Non-fertilized . . . . .April 9 June 13 65 days 6 to 9 inches 0 to 4L

FIG. 7.—Fertilized and nonfertilized cotton. The acid phosphate fertilized is the large cotton
on the left. The center of the view is down the middle between the two cottons. The photograph
was made ten days after taking the height, amount of fruit and age in the above table. The width
between rows is same in both cottons.

EFFECT OF FERTILIZERS ON YIELDS.

The data above given shows the greater amount of growth that was
made by cotton fertilized with phosphoric acid, an element of which the
soil was deficient or at least was needed by the plant. The mixed or
combined fertilizer showed no greater growth at that date than the
acid phosphate alone. The final yields were in proportion to the rate
o-r extent of growth at the time weevils stopped all fruiting, which was
about July 20.

Yield lst Picking Yield 2d and

Treatment Aug. 22,1904 Last Picking T°ta1
100 pounds acid phosphate . . . . . . . . . . . . 600 300 900

200 pounds acid phosphate . . . . . . . . . . . 680 330 1010

500 pounds acid phosphate . . . . . . . . . . . . 770 330 1100

No fertilizer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 360 390 750

No fertilizer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 330 440 770

No fertilizer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 340 380 r 720

100 pounds kainit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380 320 700

200 pounds kainit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390 410 800

500 pounds kainit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 191 360 551

250 pounds sulphate of ammonia . . . . .. 230 410 640

500 pounds sulphate of ammonia . . . . . . 160 340 500

225 pounds mixture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 730 400 1130

600 pounds mixture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 710 370 1080

EARLY COTTONS. 17

Excessive amounts of each element, 500 pounds per acre, was used in
order to determine the effect 0n the plant. N0 such amounts would
ever be used in practice, not by half——and such excessive amounts might,
in themselves, and very probably would have a harmful effect. Part
0f the decrease of the plants where nitrogen and potash were used is
perhaps due to that cause, that is to the very large amounts put directly
under the plants. Part of the decrease is due to soil or plot variation
and is too small to be otherwise taken into account.

The rapid growth due to phosphoric acid is strikingly shown in the
yields of the first pickings as compared with the other plots and con-
firms the extent of growth exhibited in the above table and photograph.
Unquestionably if this cotton could have been planted 20 days earlier,
when it ought to have been planted, the acid phosphate would have
made proportionately greater yields. It would have had twenty days
longer to fruit, and the profit from the use of these amounts would
have been greater. The increase from the use of 100 and 200 pounds
acid phosphate is 150 and 260 pounds seed cotton. But the cotton did
not use all of the 200 pounds, and perhaps 150 pounds would be about
the correct amount for the College soil. Profit from the use of acid
phosphate, though late planted, was $3.50 and $5.80 per acre on an esti-
mate of $1.00 per hundred for phosphate put in the soil and 3 cents for
the seed cotton.

The non-fertilized cotton made more than the average stated yield
of the soil, and is accounted for in the better preparation of seed
bed and earlier planting and better cultivation than was given the soil
before weevils appeared; then, too, it is said that the season was
extra favorable. But the soil needs deep breaking, because of hardpan
beneath, if the yield is to be increased to the fullest extent by the use
of fertilizers.

Two other tracts of King cotton were fertilized with a mixture of
the three elements and were purposely planted later than the foregoing,
and the vields are exhibited here to show the importance of early plant—
ing in order to get as long a fruiting period as possible before weevils
stop all fruiting, and if the season is too short, fertilization can not do
any good. At College Station the growing and fruiting season is about
120 days, which is sufficient time to make on upland by good culture,
fertilization and good seed, a bale or more per acre.

Date planted, May 20; yields seed cotton, 340 per acre; fruiting
period extends to July 20.

Date planted, Iune 8; yields seed cotton, nothing per acre; fruiting
period extends to ]uly 20.

The cotton of these two plantings grew from four to five feet by the
last of September, when caterpillars destroyed all foliage.

HONV FERTILIZERS CAUSE INCREASED YIELDS IN A
GIVEN TIME, OR CAUSE EARLY MATURITY.

The information obtained on this question has been partially stated
above. Fertilizers cause a rapid growth or extension of the plant, and
consequently the rapid formation of new joints on its main stem, and
the sending out at these joints of new fruit branches and the rapid
formation of new joints therein, where the squares or bolls grow.

18 TEXAS EXPERIMENT STATION.

Under the stimulus of abundant food, the plant makes a very much
greater number of joints and consequently bolls in a given time
than plants not so abundantly supplied with food. It should be
understood that if the soil water supply or rainfall is very deficient,
fertilized cotton may grow but little faster than non-fertilized cotton,
since without the water the food can not enter the plant.

THE USE OF FERTILIZERS ON COTTON.

As already stated in this report, there is no difference in fertilizing
cotton for earliness and in fertilizing for increased yields on exhausted
soils. The latter practice is, however, so well known that an elaborate
discussion is unnecessary, but a statement of the important features of
the practice is necessary for growers in Texas who find it profitable to
use fertilizers either for a poor soil or for a short fruiting season,
shortened by weevils. There is, however, as between the two practices,
a difference in degree in fertilizing for the two purposes. The quantity
of fertilizer that plants can use in a short fruiting season is a little less
than can be used o-n exhausted soil in a long fruiting season. Further-
more, when weevils shorten the fruiting season, plants can not grow
fruit to the tips as they did in a long fruiting season, and for this
reason the distance both ways between plants should not be greater
than the distance that was found to be best before the fruiting season
was shortened by the boll weevil.

WHAT KIND OF FERTILIZERS TO USE.

Potash, nitrogen and phosphoric acid are the forms of plant food
found profitable to apply to soils to increase the growth and yields. The
most common form in which they are offered for sale is kainit, cotton
meal and acid phosphate. There is also the so-called complete fertiliz-
ers containing these three things or elements mixed together in differ-
ent proportions for different crops. But there are perhaps few soils in
Texas that need potash for cotton; and therefore to buy it in a complete
fertilizer for all soils is a useless expense. Some soils, especially the worn
sandy soils of east Texas and elsewhere may be found to need nitrogen,
and perhaps occasionally potash, and the cheapest form to apply nitro-
gen is cotton meal, which also contains a little phosphoric acid and pot-
ash. The use of cotton meal may be at the rate of 100 to 150 pounds
per acre as an approximately correct amount. Perhaps most of the
upland soils of the State, unless it is some of the black waxy soils, will
greatly increase‘ the yield of cotton when acid phosphate is used at the
rate of 100 to 200 pounds as the approximately correct amount. Soils
may be tested, as was done in this investigation, and the two smaller
amounts of each fertilizer may be used singly and in combination, and
the weights of the seed cotton yielded by each will show the kind and
amount of each fertilizer element that is most needed and that will be
profitable. Plots of soil for such a test may be of any size from one-
tentl1 of an acre up, though the area stated will be found most con-
venient for uniformity of soil throughout the several plots. Acid phos-
phate that contains not less than 14 or 15 per cent of available phos-

EARLY COTTONS. 19

phoric acid should be used, and it will cost in Houston or other common
railroad points about $18 or $19 per ton. It 1s important to know the
per centage available in a purchase.

WHEN AND HOW TO APPLY FERTILIZERS TO SOIL.

The land should be fiat broken in winter, December or earlier, or if
cotton stubble it may be bedded in the old middles. About the last of
]anuary, or a sufficient period before planting for the seed bed to be-
come firm, furrows for rows are run off on the fiat broken land and
fertilizers distributed in these furrows. On the re-bedded cotton stub-
ble land, the fertilizers may be applied in the middle furrow, which was
the old row before breaking. The fertilizers in the furrow are bedded
on and the cotton planted in the usual manner. The cotton seed should
be planted directly over the fertilizer and not in the furrow with the
fertilizer, or at least not in contact, as their vitality may be destroyed.

Fertilizers may be distributed in a furrow by seed planters, or by
one-horse fertilizer distributors, or by hand. If they are distributed
by hand, a tin bugle or horn is necessary to prevent the wind inter-
fering. This device is made of tin with a diameter of about two
inches and of about three feet in length, with an enlarged funnel-
like shape at the top, and to one side of the top a handle is soldered. The
laborer takes the fertilizer in a sack on his right side and holds the
bugle in his left hand with the lower end of the bugle in the furrow,
and while walking rapidly along works the fingers of his right hand for
an even distribution of the fertilizer. After a few hours’ practice, a
good man can put it down uniformly and at a rapid walk.

SOILS OF THE STATE.

The profitable way for growers to increase their crop of cotton is
by fertilizing to increase or double the yield per acre and not by in-
creasing the acreage. The cost of making one-third of a bale per acre is
as great as the cost of making a bale, except the cost of fertilizer. Then
fertilized upland cotton is surer to make a crop every year, since it
makes in a shorter time and escapes the weather vicissitudes of a long
season. Planted as early as possible, the soil water and a little rainfall
and fertilizers and prompt culture will make three-quarters of a bale to
a bale in 100 to 120 days, whether weevils infest or not.

All the sandy or loamy soils of the State of Texas can very prob-
ably use fertilizers to good advantage, especially acid phosphate. River
bottoms may not respond profitably to fertilizers unless they be quite
worn from long culture. The black waxy lands through the middle
of Texas, north and south, as represented in Ellis County this year, did
not respond to any of the fertilizers singly or combined in duplication
of those at College, yet the soil non-fertilized produced only one-half a
bale per acre. That small yield shows that something is or was wrong,
otherwise if the soil needs no plant food, that is to say, is rich enough,
it should have made more than it did. But the yield remaining the same
whether fertilized or not shows that the soil needs study. I would sug-
gest deep breaking, or at the very least, deep breaking under the beds,
notwithstanding this might be readily objected to on the supposition

2O TEXAS EXPERIMENT STATION.

that “cotton will not fruit until it strikes hard ground,” 0r because “deep
breaking has already been tried.” The deep breaking should be done in
sufficient time before planting for the seed bed to become firmed by
rains. Something is unquestionably wrong or something is at least
needed by the soil since it makes a small yield and does not respond
to liberal fertilizing. I would therefore try deep breaking to make
a better seed bed and a better water supply. The small yield was not
due to excessive rainfall nor to a deficiency. This cotton had all the
“hard ground to cause fruiting” that this theory might require, since
the seeds Were planted on hard unbroken soil at the bottom of a shal-
low furrow made in the two or three inches of broken surface
soil. The hard ground which the cotton roots struck as soon as the
seed germinated did not cause the cotton to fruit as much as it should
have fruited on a soil so rich in plant food that an addition would cause
no increased yield. This land would have been broken deeper for this
work had time permitted. Black waxy soil, especially where rainfall
is of irregular occurrence, must be kept well stirred or mulched to pre-
vent it drying out “as deep as broken.”

By using fertilizers on any soil where they will increase the yield,
large crops can be made on less land and more corn and cowpeas can be
grown to rotate the cotton land. The cowpea adds humus and nitrogen
to the soil; then when cotton follows it, acid phosphate would in all
probability be the only fertilizer needed for an increased yield of cotton.