The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1918-10-21
Crop Comes to Life After Rains !;
Plant Loaded with Blooms
and Bolls; Heavy Foil
age Advantage.
ONLY HEAVY FROST
WILL CHECK GROWTH
Three Weeks Needed to Develop
Good Yield from Present Con-
ditions; Shows now About
Twenty Per cent.

That the cotton crop in Grady
county is trying to stage a come
back, and has a fair chance to get
away with it, providing Jack Frost
co-operates to a slight extent is the
opinion Of L. c. Hutson of the In
diahoma gins, after a careful inves-
tigation in the fields of the county.
According to Mr. Hutson, a heavy
frost or two is about all that can
cheat Grady out of a fair crop this
year. despite the fact that the late
summer promised absolutely nothing
in the way of cotton production At
the same time, Mr., Hutson points to
the fact that there is only about 20
per cent of a crop made here.
"At the time the drouth was brok-
en- in the late summer, the cotton
crop in Grady county was practically
dead" said Mr. Hutson. Following
the rains, the plant came to life and
started blooming, Those blooms are
now squares and small bolls, with
other blooms putting on. Unless
the plant is killed by frost inside
of three weeks, present conditions
indicate that a fair cotton crop will
result 1t would be impossible to es-
innate the amount.
Plant Well Protected.
"One of the best features OF the
situation is that it would take an
exceedingly heavy frost to kill the
Stalk and small bolls This is be-
cause of the heavy foliage that the
plant has put on This foliage
amounts almost to blanket Al
light frost would not kill the small
bolls and the stalk because OF this
protection. 1t might kill the leaves
and put the plants in position to
suffer exceedingly should there be
a second frost, but this heavy foliage
is distinct asset.
In certain localities, the rains
proved directly beneficial. That is,
there were spots in some fields in
the bottoms, where considerable
moisture had gathered and which
withstood the heat and .drouth bet
ter, of course, than the uplands
This cotton was not killed 1t had
merely stopped growing. When the
rains came, it started blooming with
the result that it is now practically
matured. The other cotton had to
grow and attain maturity after the
rains started. There are some far
mers who tell me they will make
half bale to the acre on cotton now
matured. They will possibly do it,
but such cases are few and far be-
tween and will not add a great deal
to the county yield in general
Crop About 20 per cent.
Judging from past averages and
taking into consideration the cotton
acreage in Grady county, the two
LOGAN gins, it was estimated would
gin about 5000 bales this season.
Under existing conditions, only one
gin has opened and it has nevar, up
to this time, operated on more than
half time. If the present run is not
improved, this plant will gin proba-
bly, 500 bales during the season,
making the average about 20 per
cent of the estimate.
"The staple has not improved to
any wonderful extent. Some Of the
cotton that was well along when the
.drouth was broken has shown an
improvement in staple. Otherwise
there seems to be no material
change
There is not more than a 90 per
cent Of the estimated crop assured
- ,.ot Inf fbo cffv.f;o,, i,ca,.., No.