The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-02-07
TESTS OF COTTON MADE AT AUBURN
Thirty Varieties Are Used in
 the Experiments
BIG YIELD PRODUCED
Seed for Planting on Account of Boil Rot Which Affected the
 Last Crop

Auburn, February 6.-(Special)- )-Press
 bulletin No. S6 Alabama experiment sta ton, is issued showing the following tests of the varieties of cotton in 1909: In 1909, in a test of 9 varieties of cot ton on the Station farm at Auburn, Ala, the varieties affording the greatest total
 value of seed and lint were the follow ing, named in order of productiveness:
 Cook. No. 2Oe; Cook. No. 2A; Dixie.
 Hardin, Poulnot, Peterkin, Cleveland, Layton.
 All the above yielded crop worth more
 than s1oo per acre. valuing lint at IA
 cents, and seed at $25 per ton. The rank of the varieties was determined after
 making allowance for a uniform stand of plants of each variety.
 In the last four variety tests, in the list of the five most productive varieties,
 we find Cook among the leaders in each
 of three years; Toole. Cleveland, Dixie
 and Poulnot each occupied leading posi-
 tions in each of two years. | Cook is more severely injured by boil
 rot than any of the other four conspicu-
 ously productive varieties.
 | Cleveland resembles Cook, but is less
 ton from the burr.
 l Poulnot Is & semi-cluster variety with
 medium to large bolls; it is later than | Cook, Cleveland and Toole. Toole and Dixie have small bolls; Dixie 1 is late in maturing, and Is the only vari- ety among these able to thrive on fields where black-root occurs.
 Cook No. 2O6 and Cook No. 221 are
 strains bred up by this station from Cook 1 improved.
 | The Alabama exposition station can not supply seed of any variety; 1t Is be- Tweed that seed from a crop as badly damaged by anthracnose, or boil rot
 as was all the cotton on the station farm l in 1909, may serve to increase this dis
 ease, although it Is already present in | most or all parts of the state. | The largest actual yield of lint in 1908 was TAT pounds per acre, and the largest yield on the basis of a perfect stand was
 784 pounds. These large yields were made
 in spite of the natural infertility of the
 gray sandy upland soil employed, and in | spite of the very severe injury from an- l thracnose of the bolls, or boil rot. The | large yields are due chiefly to the blow | ing under early in April, 1909, of a crop
 of immature crimson clover, which occu- pied the land between September g. 1908 and April, 1909. The crimson clover seed
 well inoculated, had been sown without | fertilizer between the rows of late corn; when plowed under as fertilizer early in April 1t was 10 to IS inches high, and 1 just beginning to bloom. The cotton was
 fertilized with 400 pounds per acre of a
 home mixed fertilizer, consisting of 240
 pounds acid phosphate, 70 pounds muri-
 ate of potash, and 120 pounds nitrate of
 soda. Planting was done in May in
 checks S1ax31s feet.
 l For two years In succession and on two
 different fields of naturally poor sandy
 of cotton per acre have been produced on
 the farm of the Alabama experiment
 station, as the result of blowing under
 crimson clover early in April. This clo- yer, properly inoculated, had been sown
 the previous fall without special prepara-
 ton of the land, and while the main crop
 still occupied the land
 | Full directions for growing crimson
 clover, and hence for making large yields
 of cotton or of any other crop after it,
 are given in Bulletin No. 147 of the Ala
 bama experiment station. On applica-
 ton this pamphlet will be sent free to any address.
 J. E. DUGGAR, l Director l E. F. CAUTHEN, Farm Superintendent and Recorder.