Evening star., 1923-07-31
COT1QN ON TREES
PRODUCED IN TEXAS
Plant Grated on Mulberry
Roots May RevoIutionize
Farming in South.
Ny VICTOR H. sCHoFFEDMAYER.


Special Dispatch to The Star
GALVESTON, Tex, July 31.-Suc-
cessfully grating cotton plants to
the roots of a mulberry tree and
!. blending in the offspring certain de-
sirable characteristics of Egyptian Sea
Island and other long staple American
Sreties, =. Dan George, a Rumanian-
hungarian pant breeder who settled at
Lamarque, Galveston county, sixteen
years ago. has deveoped a new variety
OF cotton. One grated pant this season
has, actual count, GIT bolls and hun
dreds of squares, while the parent
plant last season had SAP bolls which
opened July 2S, some seven locks
and none with less than five and six
Inc plant was eight feet tall and
SIX feet in diameter.
\ Five Bales An Acre.
From three grated cotton plants
last season. Mr.. George gathered fif-
ty-nlne pounds of seed cotton or at the
rate of five bales an acre.
.;aIhls ms plant has undoubtedly Egyp-
Ilan characteristics with deeply in
11ehted 1ted leaves and long pointed bolls.
me progeny from this plant will
Sealn be crossed with other desirable
the high-yielding powers of the
parent Egyptian plant and the large
Dolls OF several other crosses now
er0wlng on the George place.
cotton will depend entirely upon its
=. performance under actual farming
conditions. This has not been possi-
Die because until this year there has
not been enough seed to plant a large
acreage. Next season. however, there
G3ll be enough seed from this years
upp to plant several hundred acres,
MI. George is certain
counts made in the Lamarque field
showed field plants grown in ordi-
nary cotton rows with seventy-two
almost mature bolls and 169 squares.
Ihey have done this in spite of a
rainy, adverse and backward season,
winch has caused much shedding.
Big as Mans Fist.
Examination of the staple from the
three parent plants last season showed
AZ length of one and a half inches.
with d fine silky texture and good
drag. large open boil was almost
as big as mans first. All We're
This years bollS are of very large
size, many of more than an inch and
a Quarter in diameter.
Mr.. Georges idea is to produce a
tree cotton which will reproduce it
self each year by growing a new
crown. although the upper portion of
the stalk or trunk may die down dur
Tg cold weather. There are such
nee cottons in Asia and South Amer
lea and one variety in Cuba which
possess fairly long staple.
Just what part the grating of cot
ton to mulberry roots is playing in
the development of Mr.. Georges new
varieties is not determined so far
1t undoubtedly has made for large
size of bolls, yigor of plants, prolific
-fruitinG and enormous size, OF leaves
some of the leaves from has cotton
plants this season have q spread. OF
eighteen inches. Some have Ave
lobeS and others three. Some are
oeepiy cleft and others are rounded
Ninetyfive per cent of Georges
COTTON plants at Lamarque. are quite
uniform and have high yielding pow
eFs. In some the dominant traits OF
not less than three or four varieties
are present.
A remarkable thing about Georges
new cotton is that the plants are
heavily fruited from the bottom up.
the bolls literally resting on the
ground with the middle branches
almost touching the ground also. The
fruiting is very uniform.
George has been offered 500 for a
boil and has refused 81 4 seed. He
obrtained 10000 seeds from last years
experiments. Seed breeders from
various parts of Inc United States,
Belgium, East Africa, Australia and
Great Britain have written to him to
OBTAIN seed of his new variety. He
thinks it adapted especially 20 the
Gulf coast region.