Bryan daily eagle and pilot. [volume] (Bryan, Tex.) 1909-1918, 1911-09-02
LONG STAPLE COTTON
IN HARRIS COUNTY

Frank Putnam In the Houston
Chronicle tells this interesting story
|of an experiment with long staple
cotton:
Mr.. Leon Van Meldert of Cedar
Bayou on Friday morning laid on my
cesk samples which measured two and
three-eighth inches in length. He has
on his farm at Cedar Bayou, Harris
county, nineteen acres Of this long
staple cotton. Two acres of II are fer
tilted with stable manure. about
sixty wagon loads to the acre. These
Two acres, he says, are now bearing
July two bales OF cotton per acre. The
other seventeen acres, planted on sod
land, not fertilized, will Yield. he saws.
one-half bale to bale per acre. This
cotton Is worth 30 to 80 cents per
pound, when grown in quantity suffi-
cient to command market attention.
Here, in brief, is what Mr. Van Mel
dert told me about his long staple
cotton experiments
In 1909 he bought in Paris. France.
two pounds of the seed of Carovonica
cotton, a variety grown In Hawaii.
The Carovonica Is hybrid, one-half
Sea Island and one-half Peruvian. In
p9O9, on his farm at Cedar Bayou, Mr..
Van Meldert planted the Carovonica
seed and some selected Sea Island
seed. When the plants bloomed he
hand-pollenized them, producing a
hybrid that is three-fourths Sea Island
and one-fourth Peruvian. In the fall
OF 1909 he gathered handful OF seed
from the plants which he had cross
pollenized. In the spring of 1910 he
sowed this seed, producing seventy
plants. From these seventy plants he
got staple two and one-fourth inches
long, maximum. He brought some OF
the stalks to Houston in the fall of
1910 and exhibited them at the cotton
exchange and elsewhere. They COM
manded general attention from men
interested in cotton, but the opinion
was generally expressed that the next
year the hybrid would degenerate.
In the spring of 1911 Mr.. Van Mel
dert planted two acres of the new hy-
brid seed on April 81. He had one
helper. The helper walked ahead, dig
ging holes; Mr.. Van Meldert followed.
dropping the seed into the holes and
covering. Four seeds were planted in
each hole, the holes being spaced two
steps apart, in rows which were four
or five feet apart. Late heavy rains
destroyed this early planting, for
which he had used his best seed.
During the first half of May he
planted again, two acres on fortified
land, seventeen acres on sod land that
had never been fortified He says So
per cent of the seeds made stalks. In
a few hills only one stalk came up, in
others three or four. He had no chop
ping to do. The land 10 dry and sandy.
He did not irrigate. He cultivated
only one way of the field.
Mr.. Van Meldert has picked 200
pounds of the staple thus far. He says
il runs in length from two and one
fourth to two and one-half inches. He
has no longer any doubt the hybrid
will hold true to form, and believes it
will improve with age He expects in
four or five years more to be growing
.hree-inch staple.
Next year, he SAYS, he will plant so
10 100 acres of the hybrid. and he may
have some seed for distribution.
The stalks, he says, run from five
o six feet tall. The stem, grown from
May to September I. averages two
inches in diameter. 1t is a shrub
'ather than bush. He brought a
stalk to Houston Friday morning that
bore over one hundred bolls. He says
he stalks will average eighty to
ninety bolls on the two acres that
we're fortified. He has 1850 stalks
Yer acre there. Estimating eighty
POLLS to make a pound of seed cotton,
lie has today two bales or more per
lcre of cotton already made on the
wo-acre patch. The plants are still
making vigorous growth. exhibiting
very phase of the plants life from
he opened boIl, ready to pick, back
o the blossom.
The flowers, he says, are a dark
elbow, with red spots at the base of
he pedals. When the field was in
loom, he says, it looked like a field
# tea roses-very beautiful.
Army worms injured his other cot
on fields. but did not get into the |
ong staple patches. He says he has |
lad no boil weevil to speak of this |
ear. He believes the weevils are
moving gradually east and north, and |
ire not returning.