Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1917-02-24
Dc You Know Which Variety Pays the Best in Arkansas and
 Why 1t Does2
By w. E. Ayres, Experiment Station University of
 Arkansas.

1 the shOrt-staple class.
 In general, the long-staple varieties are later, have a lower per cent Of lint, and their bolls are more pointed
 than the short-stapleS. However.
 some of the recently introduced long,
 staples are earlier than the average short-staple cottons and have other desirable characteristics which are
 bringing them into favor.
 What ls Good Variety? The money
 value per acre produced by a variety
 of cotton is the criterion by which it
 is ultimately judged, provided it has
 no qualities which are str1kingly un-
 desirable Such factors as length
 and per cent of lint are usually inn
 portant in determining values, but the
 variety which yields the highest per
 cent of lint or the longest lint is often
 poor when profits are considered. earliness. size of bolls, ease of picking, and storm resistance are factors to- be
 considered in selecting variety. Un-
 der boil weevil conditions, toward the northern limit of the cotton belt, or on
 new land, earliness is very important
 What Is an Early Variety? Since
 tho advent of the boil weevil it Is
 agreed that the variety which will pro-
 duce the most cotton in an area heav- lily infested with weevils is the earli- est variety. Small boiled, early matur- ing varieties often fail to yield as well on soils medium low in fertility as the medium early, large boiled varle- ties even under boil weevil condi- tions. The greatest difference be- tween the earliest and latest varieties exists in humid districts on poorly drained rich bottom land On such land such varieties as Trice, Shine, King, etc., should be considered if short-staple varieties are preferred. Variety Tests in 1916 Interesting. The Arkansas Experiment Station tested fifty-five varieties and strains of cotton at two different points in
 the state last year. In addition. to 25 varieties were tested in co-opera- tion with the county agents in several counties One of the large tests was conducted at Scotts in cooperation with MT. Conoway Scott and the other at Mena on the old substation. The test at Scotts was on Arkansas River bottom land. The season was favorable and the yields good. The Mena test was on hill land. The yields
 there were very low, due to extreme. ly dry weather shortly after the plants
 began to set forms.
 The average results of the tests at the {ifty-five varieties produced seed
 and lint worth Cat market prices for September, October and November
 more than $100 per acre, the average per acre value of these twelve varie-
 ties being more than $1070O. The per
 acre value of the same varieties at Scotts averaged more than $170.00.
 The poorest twelve varieties averaged
 a little less than $76.0O per acre in
 the two tests and $116.OO at Scotts. The high yields were produced at the same expense as the poor ones plus the cost of harvesting and mar keting the excess produced by the high yielders. This would have
 amounted to about $5 per acre for the
 average of the two tests and about | $500 per acre at Scotts. If the aver
 age cost per acre of production and
 marketing for the poor yielders was 1 $25.00 and the cost at Scotts $27.00
 per acre the per acre profit was $77.00
 for the high yielders and $51.00 for the low yielding varieties. The per
 acre profit at Scotts was $135 and $S9. respectively, for the high and
 low yielding varieties. Profits from
 high yielding varieties were about 50
 per cent greater than from low yielding varieties. Profits from high
 yielding varieties were about 50 per cent greater than from low yielders.
 Among the high yielders in the av-
 craze for the two tests were Triumph.
 Wannamaker, Big Boil (Cleveland)
 Cleveland, Half and Half, Roundnose, Christopher Big Boil, Toole, and a
 strain of Cook bred by the Alabama
 Experiment Station, all in the short
 staple class; and the following long
 staple varieties: Foster, Webber No
 S2, Webber No. 49, and Express. Ex.
 press was the earliest of the above
 varieties, but had lower per cent of
 lint and shorter lint than any of the | above long-staples. All of the above
 short-staples, except Toole, were com- paratively early. Other varieties which l did we'll at Mena were: Cooks I'm proved, Rublee, Lone Star, Rowden, Dodds Prolific, Dodd's Favorite, King | and Shine. At Scotts, Durango, Co.,
 lumbia, Dixie and Sproull Big Boil
 were good yielders.
 On land infected with wilt Dixie
 and Govington-Toole are perhaps the best varieties of which seed can be obtained in commercial quantities.