[Illustration: The late cotton is for weevil--not for the farmer. The boll weevil prevented the above late cotton from making a single boll.] =Apply Commercial Fertilizers:= Where the soil responds to commercial fertilizer, it is advisable to make heavy applications to hasten maturity and increase the yield. It is best to use fertilizers which will stimulate the fruit rather than stalk growth. High grade, 16 per cent acid phosphate is the basis for increasing fruit and hastening maturity; cotton seed meal is usually the basis for stimulating stalk growth. A mixture of two parts of 16 per cent acid phosphate and one part of 6 per cent cotton seed meal is a good mixture for cotton on soil of average fertility. It will usually also pay to mix about ten pounds of nitrate of soda with every bushel of seed just before it is put into the planter. The nitrate of soda has a tendency to cause the young cotton to grow vigorously and resist the bad effects of cool nights. It also usually pays to make a side application of nitrate of soda just after the cotton has been thinned the first time. =Plant Early Varieties:= The production of an early cotton crop requires carefully selected seed of an early, rapid-fruiting, prolific variety. This seed may be purchased each year, or selected from cotton plants with low fruit limbs and short joints on the main stem and fruit limbs. With the weevil pest to combat, the value of using the earliest and most prolific seed cannot be over-estimated. It is advisable for the average farmer to buy the best early varieties from some reputable breeder and then use every known method to increase the earliness and productiveness of the cotton. Reports of tests at the Government Experiment Stations name the earliest and most prolific varieties of cotton. It is not good business to buy varieties of seed that have not been shown to be the earliest and most prolific by actual tests in the fields through a sufficient number of years to eliminate weather conditions. Seed should not be purchased because of high-sounding names or exaggerated claims. =Plant the Seed Early:= Seed should be planted just as early as the season will permit. This is important in the work of hastening the cotton crop to early maturity. The weevils do not multiply until the squares begin to form. They seldom become sufficiently numerous to destroy the squares as fast as they form, before the last of July. While it is important to plant as early as the season will permit, do not forget that cotton is a tropical plant and is badly effected by cold weather.