BULLETIN No. 149

FEBRUARY, 1910

ALABAMA

Agricultural Experiment Station
OF THE

Alabama Polytechnic Institute
AUBURN

TESTS OF VARIETIES OF COTTON IN1909

J. F. DUGGAR, Director,
AND

E. F. CAUTHEN, Farm

Supt. and

Recorder.

Opelika, Ala.:
The

Post Publishing
1910

Company,

COMMITTEE OF TRUSTEE S ON EXPERIMENT STATION.
HON. H. L. MARTIN ......................................

Ozark

HON. TANCRED BETTS...........................Huntsville HON. A. W. BELL...............................Anniston STATION COUNCIL. C. C. THACH.................................... J. F. DUGGAR ...................... B. B. Ross ..........................
Chemist and State

President Director and Agriculturist
Chemist

C. A. 'CARY ...... 'Veterinarian and Director Farmers' Institutes F. E. LLOYD....................................Botanist R. S. MACKINTOSH (on leave)..................Horticulturist
J. T. ANDERSON......... Chemist, Soil and Crop Investigations

D. T. GRAY...............................Animal C. L. HARE.....................................Chemist P. F. WILLIAM ........................

Industry

W. E. HINDS................................Entomologist Acting Horticulturist Chemist

C. S. WILLIAMSON.......................Associate ASSISTANTS. T. BRAGG ..........................

First Assistant Chemist Assistant Chemist

E. F. CAUTHEN.............. Farm Superintendent and Recorder N. E. BELL......................Second I. S. MCADORY................ Assistant in Veterinary Science W. F. TURNER...................... Assistant in Entomology M. J. FUNCHESS ..................... C. -S. RIDGWAY ......................... L. W. SHOOK ................... 0. H. SELLERS ................ J. C. PRICE ........................ Assistant in Agriculture Assistant in Botany Assistant in Animal Industry Stenographer and Mailing Clerk Assistant in Horticulture

TESTS OF VARIETIES OF COTTON IN 1909.
BY

J.

F.

DUGGAR

AND E.

F.

CAUTHEN.

In 1909 thirty varieties of cotton were tested on plots on the Experiment Station Farm at Auburn. The cotton was left one plant in a hill in checks 3 1-2 by 3 1-2 feet. The fertilizer per acre consisted of 240 pounds acid phosphate, 120 pounds nitrate of soda and forty pounds of muriate of potash, making a total of 400 pounds. The rather large yields (up Ito about 1 1-2 bales per acre) for this grade of naturally thin, gray, sandy land were attributable chiefly to plowing under with a disc plow early in April, 1909, a crop of crimson clover, which was then ten to eighteen inches high and beginning to bloom. Seed of crimson clover had been sown on this inoculated land September 9, 1908, and merely cultivated in between the rows of corn. After making allowance for vacant hills, the varieties ranking highest in combined value of lint (at 14 cents) and seed (at $25.00 per ton)were the following: Cook, No. 206; Cook, No. 221; Dixie; Hardin; and Poulnot. Cook, No. 206, and Cook, No. 221, are both strains of Cook Improved that have been bred up at the Alabama Experiment Station. In yields of lint per acre, (793 pounds and 736 pounds), and in total value of seed and lint per acre, ($125.58 and $117.36), and in per cent. of lint (40.6 and 39.1 per cent.), they show superiority to the parenit variety and to the other varieties tested. These two improved strains of Cook suffered severely from anthracnose, generally called boll rot; so did all strains of Cook, whether improved or not; also Brown, No. 1, Blue Ribbon and Hardin. All varielties were attacked by this disease, but to a smaller extent than those mentioned.

Varieties of cotton in 1909, ranked according to total value per acre of seed and lint.
Actual Yield per Acre. (Stand variable) Corrected to Uniform Stand.
0 cC
y Q

VARIETY
Lint

a
aa

°o

Lbs. Perct. Cook, No. 206................746.7 $117 73 40.6 Cook, No. 221................687.9 109 29 39.1 Dixie........................602.5 98 59 31.9 Hardin ..................... 693.2 110 22 38.8 Poulnot.....................602.6 96 69 37.1 Peterkin....................654.9 104 68 37.8 Clevel]and...................634.5 102 77 35.4 Layton......................661.2 104 83 39.4 Cook........................607.9 97 43 37.3 Texas Bur..................602.5 98 41 34.8 Brown, No. ............ .97.2 95 87 37.4 Broadwell's Double Jointed 575.9 92 77 36.1 Georgia Best.................586.5 94 37 36.6 Cook, No. 232................55y.9 88 05 41.2 Toole........................ 581.2. 92 03 39.7 Truitt....................... 575.9 94 61 33.1 522.6 86 89 31.4 Cook, No. 239 ................ 527.9 83 50 39.9 Blue Ribbon ................. 521.5 85 37 31.6 Dillon....................... 479.9 77 32 36.3 Gold Coin.... ..... 533.2 85 50 37.2 Rowden...... ........ ...... 525.5 85 15 34.4 Strickland.... 485.2 79 22 32.6 Drake (Defiance) ....... ..... 474.6 77 97 36.2 Simpkins........ ..... . ... 511.9 35.7 82 79 King................474.5 76 77 35.6 Triumph .. 495.9 80 88 34.3 Allen Long Staple ........... 469.2 78 62 30.4 67 05 30.3 399.8 .... , ............ Trice............400.0 66 .S8 31.2

Russell......................

Lbs. 793.5 736.1 681.3 693.5 666.6 658.1 643.1 659.1 629.0 610.4 606.1 599.6 591.5 596.2 587.3 565.2
556.5

Keenan

585.1 541.5 557.9 545.4 526.9 514 0 506.1 512.7 502.4 499.7 485.8 414.1 390.0

$125 58 117 36 113 75 110 96 107 35 105 63 104 65 103 85 101 26 100 22 97 72 97 21 95 60 94 06 93.36 93 35 93 13 92 95 90 54 90 28 87 78 86 28 85 20 83 59 83 33 81 69 81 92 82 00 69.87 64 71

On account of the amount of anthracu~ose on the Station farm in 1909, and because the seed is believed to be one of conveying this' widely spread disease, the the means Station must decline to send out seed of these strains of Cook until further selection has been made for resistance this disease.

of

to

which ranked third in total value of products and fourth in yield of lint per acre, is of wilt-resistant

Dixie,

a strain

cotton developed by the U. S. Department

of Agriculture.

In our variety tests in 1909, Dixie ranked third in value of products. The plant is compact and well supplied with fruit limbs, on which the bolls are borne close together. Its conspicuous merits are (1), its ability to thrive on land where most other varieties are killed by cotton wilt or black root, and (2), its productiveness, the results of scientific selection. "The chief faults are lateness, small bolls anJ a low percentage of lint. Hardin, which ranked fourth in corrected yield, is a sm'all-bolled, semi-clulster variety. In none of the previous tests at Auburn has it shown conspicuous productiveness nor given nearly so high a percentage of lint, (38.8) as in 1909. Poulnot is a semi-cluster variety, with medium to large bolls. It has usually ranked rather high in our variety tests. Its worst fault is its rather late maturity. The other varieties that stood above the middle of the list in 1909 ranked, in value of total products per acre, in the following order: Peterkin (6th), Cleveland, Layton, Cook Improved, Texas Bur, Brown No. 1, Broadwell Double-jointed, Georgia Best, Cook No. 232 and Toole. Fifteen other varieties ranked below all of those mentioned above. The ranking varieties in the last four variety tests at Auburn are as follows: 1905. 1906. Toole Cook Cook Improved Cleveland Cleveland Layton Bancroft HerlongToole Christopher Poulnot 1908. 1909. Dillon Cook, No. 206 Gold Coin Cook, No. 221 Dixie. Dixie Cook Improved Hardin Hart Poulnot

From this it appears that Cook was in the list of "five best" in each of three years; Toole, Cleveland and Poulnot, each occurred twice in the list of most productive varieties. Each of the most productive varieties has some .shortcoming, Cook is. more, susceptible th ost varieties to

f.

boll rot; Toole has small boils; Cleveland readily drops the seed cotton from the burs; Dixie and Poulnot are late. Each grower can decide which of these faults he considers least objectionable, or whether, to avoid all of them, he will choose some good variety which, at this Station, has Triumph. proved less productive, for The earliest varieties grown in 1909 were Trice, Broadwell Double-jointed, Simpkins and King; the last two appeared to be practically identical. A number of varieties additional'to those mentioned in the table were grown for observation on areas too small to determine the yields per acre.

example,

NUMBER

OF DISEASED BOLLS.

the boils, generally called boll rot, was Anthracniose prevalent on the Station farm in 1909 that an unusual opportunity was offered to test the relative susceptibility of different varieties to this disease. The figures in the counts made in winter of the following table are b'ased total number of burs and of the number of boils that had been so injured as to cause the loss of one or more locks. Diseased bolls as here reported consisted chiefly of those injured by anthracnose, but the figures include also smaller losses due to another disease. They also doubtless include damaged by boll worms. a small number of

so

of

on

boils

Percentage

of

diseased bolls; varieties arranged in order

of freedom

from diseased bolls.

Varties IRowden ...............................
Cleveland..............................

Per cent. 5
5

Dixie

................................

5 6
6

Simpkins..................
Strickland.............................
Trice

........ ........................
..........
,,o,.0.

Drake Defiance.........,........... e....7 7 ....... *Truitt..........................
King........

0

0...70

8 Broadwell Double-jointed................8 Blue Ribbon..........................8 Gold Coin............................8 Texas Burr...........................
Cook, No. 206.................

Poulnot..............................9
Peterkin...............................9 Triumph ............................. Toole...............................9 Russell................................10 Dillon...............................11 Allen Long Staple.....................11 Layton .............................. Keenan ............................. Georgia Best.........................15 Hardin...............................17 Cook Improved.......................23 Cook, No. 221........................28 Cook, No. 239........................33 Brown, No. 1.........................33 Cook, No. 232........................35
ADDRESSES OF GROWERS.

9

11 11

The Experiment Station has no seed for distribution. The seed- used in the variety test was secured from the

following

parties :

Cook Improvd-J. R. Cook. Ellaville, Ga. Cook, Nos. 206, 221, 232, and 239-Alabama Experiment Station, Auburn, Ala.
Brown No.

llardin-W. P. Letson, Glen Allen, Ala. Dillon-U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.

I1-M.

L. Brown,' Decatur, Ga.

Dixie-U.

S. Department

of

Agriculture, Washington,

D.C. Keenan-U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.

Poulnot-J. E. Bradberry, Athens, Ga. Drake's Defiance-J. C. McAuliffe, Harlem, Broadwell Double-jointed-J. B. Broadwell, Aipharetta, Ga. Blue Ribbon-South Carolina Experiment Station, Clemson College, S. C. Allen Long Staple Amizi Godden Co., Birmingham, Ala. Layton Improved-R. D. Layton, St. Mathews, S. C. Gold Coin-Excelsiior Seed Farm, Bennettsville, S. C. Peterkin-J. A. Peterkin, Fort Motte, S. C. Cleveland-Alabama Experiment Station, Auburn, Ala. Rowden-Ben Crawford, Blake, Okla. Tatum, Palmetto, Ga. Texas Bur-R. Strickland-J. R. Strickland, Pleasant Grove, Ala. Triumph-Wade Brothers, Alexander City, Ala., and Chas. L.Gay,. Montgomery, Ala. Georgia Best-G. W. Stone, Oxford, Ga. Russell,-A. M. Troyer, Calhoun, Ala.

Ca.

D.

King-J. W.

Trice-W.

Simpkins-W.

Mitchell,

Youngsville, N.

C.

A. Simpkins, Raleigh, N.

C.-

Toole-W.

N. McFadden, Warren, Tenn.

F. Covington, Headland, Ala. Truitt -G. W. Truitt, LaGrange, Ga.