El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1917-02-16
COTTON CAN BE
CROWN IN Y. N.
Experiments at State Col
lege Show Yield Exceed
ing Bale to the Acre.

State College. y. NJ. Feb 15.-Cotton
culture in the irrigated valleys OF New
Mexico is dealt with in 4 bulletin is
sued by Rupert L Stewart agronomist
OF state College. The bulletin says:
1T has long been question in the
minds OF the farmers in some of the
irrigated valleys in this state as 10
whether cotton can be profitsbIy pro-
duced in these regions or not. The high
price paid for cotton lint and cotton
seed has brought this question more
forcibly to mind the past year or so.
with the idea of testing the suit
ability of cotton for irrigated areas in
this state, 4 project was planned in the
winter of 1916. and seed of a consider
able number of varieties of cotton were
collected and planted in the spring of
that year This was secured from many
sources In most cases, however. an at
tempt was made TO get seed that had
been grown under soil and climatic
conditions as near like ours as pos
sible. II all. % varieties Of cotton were
planted.
The field upon which the cotton was
planted was in young alfalfa the pre-
vious year; this was plOwed up the
latter part of January. 1915. and har-
roWed with a spike tooth harrow The
plots were laid out and borders thrown
Up and the land double disked. har-
rowed and dragged on April -
The soil in this field is not very
uniform in texture but an attempt to
overcome this difficulty was made BY
duplicating the plots. The soil might
he classified as a clay loan, rather
heavy in spots
20 Pounds of Seed TO Acre
'-The cotton seed was planted with an
ordinary one row Avery cotton or corn
planter in rows 40 inches apart at the
rate of about 90 pounds Of seed per
acre.
IAN but two plots were irrigated
after planting. in other words. "irri-
gated up" The other two plots were
planted in moist seed bed and allowed
to germinate before irr1gating- The
first planting wassmade on April I s. /
but a Fery poor stand was the result, !
many of the seed rotting in the ground
The remainder Of the plots were plant /
ed April 81 to "a
The plots that were irrigated up /
were narrowed with a spike tooth har- /
row as soon as the ground was dry /
enough TO allow a team to walk on II }
without sinking Very little difference !
was noticed in the stands secured un- |
der the two methods Of planting. but
the cotton came on more quickly on the /
plots that were irrigated after plant
ing
Irrigated six Times. /
All of the plots were irrigated SIX
times and the water turned off after
being allowed to stand an hour or So
The plots We're cultivated four times
during the season In the first two
CIVILIZATIONS. a disk cultivatOr was used
and the dirt turned away from the
plants In the last two civilizations. a
shovel cultiVatOr was used and the
iirt thrown 10 the plants.
The yields of the three heaviest
producing varieties were as follows:
8urnett's cotton yielded at the rate OF
AZ bale OF lint cotton per acre: Du-
-ango cotton, 1-46 bale per acre; Anan's
imperial Triumph, 1-37 bale per acre
Results Not Conclusive.
These results are not conclusive. as
hey are based on only one years work. I
,ur are quite encouraging. Those who
contemplate planting cotton should eX-
.rcise every precaution to secure good
iced. cultivate often and use water
ipariusIy. as the plants have a tend
sncy to grow too rank on our rich
oils"