The age-herald., 1898-10-11
NO COTTON MARVEL.
The Plain Truth About the Much Adver-
 tised African Limbless Plant.

From the New York Commercial.
 If you happen to see a long, elaborately
 worded and imposingly illustrated article
 extolling the merits of new and very pro- life cotton plant called the African limb less cotton tree, investigate its merits eare- fully before you decide to invest your sav-
 ings in this botanical marvel. In many of the country papers the African limbless cotton advertisements, worded and gotten up to look like pure reading matter, invite the attention of investors to the photo grapic representations of the growing trees
 on the plantation of the man who claims | to have introduced the new cotton plant
 into America. So promising is the appear ance of this limbless cotton plant that the photographs, at first sight, would be taken
 as connrma tory evidence of the truth of | the advertisers claims
 The curiosity of cotton experts in this city
 was aroused when the advertisements first appeared, and one of these experts decided to make an investigation. HIS decision was that the African limbless cotton bore no more relationship to the staple that four 4--.es in the Dark Continent than do Cali fornia grapes to Irish potatoes. In describ- ing his investigations to the representative of the Commercial yesterday this cotton ex-
 pei said
 T was, of course, duly impressed with .--e extraordinarily large size of the trees and the fine quality of the cotton, but re-
 iec tion led me to form the opinion that the
 tau tree was not desirable form or cot lon plant for the reasons that it's height
 would render it more liable to damage from wind storms, the trees would have to be planted nearer together and the soil would require great deal more fertilizer to produce fine cotton on such big plants. Another weakness was the exceptionally high price of the seeds Ordinarily cotton seeds can be bought for $2 a bushel, whi.e the price of this new and marvellous Atri- can limbless cotton seed was S2l0 bushel. It has actually sod at retail at $1 800 a bushel, taken were some of the less careful cotton growers with the description of the new cotton plants merits.
 q was therefore Qrejudiced at the offset against the new cotton, but set about my Investigations conscientously, as many in- tending investors had asked my opinion and were awaiting my report before risk ing their money. had not proceeded very far in my investigation before I discovered several facts which I will briefly enumer- a.e:
 First. The African limbless cotton was precisely the same as that produced by cotton grower of Texas, who, by combining a tall variety of cotton plant with short enc, and using an unusually liberal amount of fertilizer, had made of the combination a very tall cotton tree, with branches that spread but little way from the stem. This combination cotton plant was not received very enthusiastically by the growers, for reasons that it would take too long to ex- plain now, but it was unquestonably identi- cal with the African limbless cotton, the merits of which were so loudly proclaimed in the advertisements.
 Continuing my investigations I found that the headquarters for the African limb less cotton seed were located on small farm in a southern state. The planter had taken the seed I have described and had sown it in soil impregnated with animal manure, to which had been added liberal quantities of phosphate of lime In a word the soil has been fertilized with a liberaiiy that would be impossible to the planter and in this soil the seed had been sown. Of course it grew under such favorable cond- tions to an unusual height, and the stap'e was extremely fine. To heighten the illus ion of the limblessness of the trees, some of the lower lateral branches had been broken off, so that in the photographs the plants showed up particularly well. But African origin had nothing to do with this. It was American cotton clear through
 'I wrote the result of my investigations to the department of agriculture at Wash ington, and received in answer a letter stating that, without knowing of my doing so, the department had been looking into the claims of the advertiser of the new cotton plant and had discovered it's identi- ty with that of the Texas combination plant. Furthermore, the two plants had been submitted to an eminent botanist, who had made the most careful examination of both, and found them to be similar in every respect
 ''1t is needless to say that none of the investors who had waited for my verdict put one cent of their money into the Afri- can liinbless cotton. Someone must be doing so, however, to judge by the money that is still being spent for advertising the plants"