The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1896-12-31
NEW VARIETY OF COTTON.
Something - to Plsnt Grown ON . Farm
n


Something - to PIsne Grown ON Farm
in Georgia.
There never has been year since
cotton has become q leading product OF
the United States that there have not
been startling announcements of newly
discovered varieties of wonderful pro-
ductiveness, fneness strength, etc. Cot
ton-men are pretty skeptical, therefore,
and will not usualy take the least
trouble to investigate the truth OF the
reports.
Some weeks ago the papers published
sensational stories of the discovery OF a
new kind of cotton on farm near
Atlanta, Ga, Of such wonderful pro-
ductiveness that a club Of neighboring
farmers had raised $4,000, which they
offered the raiser for every seed that he
had, in order that it might be destroyed
and ruinous competition averted.
ALI cotton-men sneered at the story,
and scarcely any of them in Atlanta
took the trouble to 60 few miles into
the country to see what basis there
might be to it. It seemed too utterly
preposterous for sensible man to enter
tain for a minute. There were too
many elements of glazing improbability.
Mr.. B. I. Jackson, on whose farm the
cotton was produced, is noted as an
experimenter in agricultural products.
His father produced the Wonder butter
bean, which has been a distinguished
success, but how many failures father
and son have had is not recorded. The
story of the new cotton is very roman
tic. 1t is:
"Two years ago soldier of fortune, a
sort Of wandering Jew, named Keil.
stopped off at Atlanta and tarried
awhile. He fell in with Mr.. B. L.
jackson, took fancy to him, and ex-
hibited a varied collection Of curios
which he said he had gathered in his
travels. Among them was a wonderful
specimen Of cotton. 1t was a cutting
| Is inches long, which contained 56 per-
feet open bolls. He had cut it, he said,
from 20-foot stalk he found growing
in front of hut in a wild part of in
terror Africa, near the Congo River, 700
miles from the coast There were nu-
merous other stalks Of the same hight,
and they seemed to be used for orna-
mental purposes"
It seems that after all there is some
basis for there port, and Albert Pherris
Ia correspondent of the Baltimore
Manufacturers Record, paper which
has high standing for care and accuracy
in its reports-has been investigating
the subject. He says: I" I have several
times visited Mr.. Jackson's place, and
have made a somewhat detailed ex-
animation Of the patch, the plant and
the product | measured the patch, and
found it contained few feet (13 square
feet more than one-third Of an acre.
l was informed that there had been
picked some 800 pounds of seed cotton
from this small patch, and there are top
bolls enough alreadymatured to increase
this yield to possibly 1000 pounds,
which would be from 2, 4002to 5000
pounds of seed cotton to the acre, and
this in a year of unusual and blighting
drouth. It is said that no commercial
fertilizers were used that the site wa;
selected because of the poor quality Of
the soil, and that the crop was raised
without irrigation (Which might have
been supplied), the intention having
been to give the severest possible test tc
the new variety. Granting these condi'
tons, the result is scarcely less than
marvellous. The stalks will average six
feet in hight, while ordinary cotton on
farms Immediately adjoining, and with
soil of apparently similar character, is
in this drouthy year only one to two
feet in hight.
"I counted the open and the matured
bolls only on about 100 Of these stalks
The highest l found was 90; great
many had 20, and those having less
than FIVE were very infrequent. 1t is
claimed that ordinarily it should aver
age 10 bolls to the stalk. The rows are
two feet apart and the plants four inches
apart in the row; the stalk shoots up
straight, with apparently little tendency
to stool or limb, and it fruits directly
from the stalk. A leaf bud appears on
the stalk, short twig or stem is devel.
oped, and at the joint Of the leaf and the
twig the fruit, with from one to five
bolls, is formed. The history Of the
plant SO far is that when the boil ma
lures the leaf drops off. SO that there
are never more than three or four leaves
at time on stalk, they being at the
top, an advantage in picking the cotton
as we'll as safeguard against disaster
should the plant be attacked by the
army worm, for he would starve te
death. Some commentators have sug
gested that this tendency to shed it:
leaves may be due simply to the drouth
which somewhat similarly affects all
vegetation, but this hypothesis woulc
hardly account for the fixed habit o
this plant to invariably shed its Leaf
only after the maturity of the boil.
GAS I remarked before, it can scarcely
be claimed that this cotton has pro
ceeded beyond the experimental stage