Cotton In Alabama Research Articles

Occurrence of Nigrospora Lint Rot Caused by Nigrospora oryzae on Cotton in Alabama.

During 2000 and 2001, a lint rot of cotton bolls (Gossypium hirsutum L.) was reported in the coastal region of Alabama when precipitation was 55% lower than the 5-year average. Bolls at an early stage of opening contained gray mycelium within the locules. At maturity, the lint within the infected locules was discolored, and the fibers were compact resulting in the characteristic "gray lock" sign and symptom attributed to Nigrospora oryzae (Berk. & Broome) Petch. Roots, petioles, leaves, and bolls when present were sampled at the seedling, first bloom, full bloom, and maturity stages of cotton development. A total of 640 sections of tissue (approximately 5 mm2) were surface sterilized for 20 s in 95% ethanol followed by 60 s in 0.525% NaOCl and aseptically plated on potato dextrose agar. Plates were incubated in the dark at 25°C for 3 to 10 days. N. oryzae was isolated at low frequencies from all plant tissues beginning at first bloom. Developing bolls at full bloom were colonized at a frequency of 48%. N. oryzae conidiophores were branched, flexuous, and pallid to brown with smooth walls 4 to 7 (5) μm thick. Conidiogenous cells were monoblastic, single, and 6 to 9 (7.5) μm in diameter. Conidia were single, smooth, broadly ellipsoidal, dark brown to black, single-celled, and 11 to 16 (14) μm in diameter (2). Principal component analysis was used to examine the relationship between disease incidence and weather parameters. Weather data was obtained from Auburn University Mesonet located in fields where the samples were collected. Principal components from weather data were ambient and soil maximum, minimum, and average temperature, maximum, minimum, and average relative humidity and precipitation. The first principal component, which is temperature, accounted for 61% of total joint variation among original observations. The second principal component, which was related to the moisture variables, accounted for 19% of the variation. The abundance of N. oryzae was correlated with the principal component factor moisture (r = -0.78**). The dry conditions experienced in this region were conducive to N. oryzae lint rot of cotton. This disease has been reported on cotton primarily in arid climates typical of the southwestern United States (1). To our knowledge, this is the first report of N. oryzae lint rot in the southeastern United States.

Influence of Geographic Region on Jimsonweed (Datura stramonium) Interference in Soybeans (Glycine max) and Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum)

Experiments with similar experimental design, soil, and planting date were conducted between 1975 and 1979 to evaluate the interference of jimsonweed on soybeans and cotton in Alabama (AL), Arkansas (AR), and Mississippi (MS). Jimsonweed densities were 0, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64 plants 12 m−1of row. Because of variation in rainfall patterns, geographic region influenced jimsonweed interference in cotton but not in soybeans. Even though jimsonweed interference was reduced by lack of rainfall, jimsonweed was more competitive in the less competitive cotton than in soybeans. Jimsonweed at 64 plants 12 m−1of row was more competitive with cotton than soybeans, causing a 56 and 16% yield reduction, respectively. Position of jimsonweed to the soybean row did not influence competitiveness. Interspecific interference with soybeans caused one-third more reduction in jimsonweed fresh weight and capsules per plant than interspecific interference with cotton. The potential for jimsonweed to become a problem in southern soybeans is less than its potential in cotton because of the competitive ability of soybeans to reduce the growth and reproductive potential of jimsonweed.

The Effects of Firm Size and Production Cost Levels on Dynamically Optimal After-Tax Cotton Storage and Hedging Decisions

AbstractFarm size and production costs are varied in a six state variable stochastic dynamic programming model that quantifies monthly hedging, storage, and cash cotton sale decisions for an Alabama cotton producer. State variables considered are: (1) cash cotton price; (2) basis level; (3) before-tax income level; (4) cotton holdings; (5) futures position; and (6) value of futures position. Results indicate that when farm size and production cost level differ, marketing decisions diverge the most for cash cotton sales at the end of the tax year and lower range of cash price (less than $.65/lb.), basis (less than -$.05/lb.), and before-tax income (less than $0.00) states.

Effects of Alternative Acreage Restriction Provisions on Alabama Cotton Farms

AbstractThe 1985 Farm Bill departs from recent farm bills in moving toward more restrictive acreage control. The change from a two- to a five-year average in calculating base acreage and enforcement of limited cross-compliance appear to significantly alter crop mix decisions on representative Alabama cotton farms.

Evaluation of the Selective Carbamate, U-56295, for Control of the Bollworm Complex, Heliothis spp. (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) in Cotton

Field trials were conducted in small plots of cotton in Alabama in 1981 and 1982 to evaluate the selective carbamate insecticide, U-56295, methyl N-((((((1,1-dimethylethyl) (5,5-dimethyl-2-thioxo-1,3,2-dioxaphosphorinan-2-yl)amino)thio)methylamino)carbonyl)oxy)ethanimidiothioate, for control of larval bollworms, Heliothis zea (Boddie), and tobacco budworms, H. virescens (F.). Varying rates of U-56295, alone and in combination with chlordimeform, were compared with broader spectrum treatments, EPN-methyl parathion and fenvalerate. Tests were conducted early, mid-, and late season. Treatments were applied weekly, irrespective of need, or as needed, based on a treatment action threshold defined by the number of larvae per 100 terminals or squares. U-56295 provided substantial, yet imperfect, control of Heliothis larvae at rates from 0.25–1.01 kg (AI)/ha. It was more effective in the protection of bolls than squares. At higher treatment rates, U-56295 provided superior residual control compared with EPN-methyl parathion; fewer applications were required to maintain larval numbers below the action threshold compared with fenvalerate. U-56295, alone and in combination with chlordimeform, demonstrated improved early season control of Heliothis larvae with reduced adverse effects on beneficial arthropods compared with EPN-methyl parathion.

Fuel and Time Data for Alabama Cotton Production Practices

ABSTRACT FUEL and time consumption data were collected in 1980 and 1981 for a moldboard plow cotton production system consisting of stalk cutting, disk harrowing, moldboard plowing, bedding, bed conditioning, planting, cultivating, insect control, and harvesting. In 1982 a subsoil-bedding operation was used as the primary seedbed preparation with the remaining production practices assumed to be the same as in previous years. The moldboard plow production system required 103.1 L/ha of fuel and 9.2 h/ha. In the subsoil-bedding production system 87.2 L/ha of fuel and 8.0 h/ha were required..

Huntsville: Alabama Cotton Town Takes Off into the Space Age

Huntsville: Alabama Cotton Town Takes Off into the Space Age

The Quest for Academic Power

A music-hall wit who has taken London by storm recently tore his audience wide open by saying in true English drawl: Darwin has told us where we came from, Conan Doyle has told us where we are going, and if Stanley Baldwin will tell us where we are, I'll buy him a new top hat. In the kingdom of higher education we have no Darwins or Conan Doyles, and it is doubtful whether there are any Baldwins among us to win shiny plugs. Yet it is certainly appropriate that someone should have recourse to first principles, take our bearings as accurately as possible, and provide us with a sailing chart containing at least general directions and notations of dangerous reefs. The task is difficult, no doubt, and the educator who rushes in where angels fear to tread will probably run the risk of amusing his colleagues who sit snugly ensconced in their specialist corners. It is easier to ascertain the price of cotton in Alabama from 1850 to 1852 or to measure the length of frogs' legs in Ireland than to find out what education is and might be; but, despite our desire to escape the problem, the issue presses itself upon us with increasing insistence. It is fortunate that the American Association of University Professors now has the courage to tackle it. From Aristotle to Henry Adams the world's great and independent thinkers have found in the universe about us evidence of plan and evidences of chance or chaos - at least as far as the human eye can see. And in illuminating particular segments of this life of law and chance they have employed the lamp of experience. The method applies to the question before us. In getting our bearings we may first have recourse to some pages of history which help to explain the situation in which we now find ourselves. There was a time in Western civilization when the term had a rather definite connotation. A university was a place where young men learned a little Greek, Latin, mathematics, and New Testament literature and prepared for the profession of law, medicine, or religion. It never was just so simple, of course, but somewhere near this center lay the substance of the university. In such institutions all tutors taught all the subjects. They thus had a common background for thinking; they were united by common intellectual bonds; and their problems of living and working together, apart from squabbles over preferment, were relatively easy of solution. Moreover, they were in the early days united by a common faith. They were not beset by skepticism or torn between a variety of sects each affirming its own truth; they were seldom harassed by economic doubts, honest or dishonest. And to make the going smooth they governed themselves without the aid of trustees, deans, assistant deans, provosts, presidents, doormen, and bell hops. Upon this idyllic scene the modern age burst with shivering blasts. With a devastating sweep came natural science. It upset much that had been accepted as fixed beyond question. It did more. It introduced the method of microscopic research. With amazing rapidity, natural history, which was once taught in its majestic range by retired clergymen, was broken up into innumerable specialties - botany, biology, zoology, chemistry, physics, anthropology, and so on. Of necessity, the scientist, with truth about particular matters as his goal, sought to explore deeper and deeper the utmost ramifications of his subject. Only in that way could he find new truth, add to the sum of knowledge, win fame, secure promotion, and establish himself securely in his profession. Just as the scientists began to tear the old learning apart, the professions began to multiply with the growing complexity of our mechanized economic order. New opportunities opened before students in colleges, and nothing was more natural than the demand that their education should bear some relation to career. It always had. Greek and Latin had been indispensable to lawyers and clergymen. …

The Quest for Academic Power

A music-hall wit who has taken London by storm recently tore his audience wide open by saying in true English drawl: Darwin has told us where we came from, Conan Doyle has told us where we are going, and if Stanley Baldwin will tell us where we are, I'll buy him a new top hat. In the kingdom of higher education we have no Darwins or Conan Doyles, and it is doubtful whether there are any Baldwins among us to win shiny plugs. Yet it is certainly appropriate that someone should have recourse to first principles, take our bearings as accurately as possible, and provide us with a sailing chart containing at least general directions and notations of dangerous reefs. The task is difficult, no doubt, and the educator who rushes in where angels fear to tread will probably run the risk of amusing his colleagues who sit snugly ensconced in their specialist corners. It is easier to ascertain the price of cotton in Alabama from 1850 to 1852 or to measure the length of frogs' legs in Ireland than to find out what education is and might be; but, despite our desire to escape the problem, the issue presses itself upon us with increasing insistence. It is fortunate that the American Association of University Professors now has the courage to tackle it. From Aristotle to Henry Adams the world's great and independent thinkers have found in the universe about us evidence of plan and evidences of chance or chaos - at least as far as the human eye can see. And in illuminating particular segments of this life of law and chance they have employed the lamp of experience. The method applies to the question before us. In getting our bearings we may first have recourse to some pages of history which help to explain the situation in which we now find ourselves. There was a time in Western civilization when the term had a rather definite connotation. A university was a place where young men learned a little Greek, Latin, mathematics, and New Testament literature and prepared for the profession of law, medicine, or religion. It never was just so simple, of course, but somewhere near this center lay the substance of the university. In such institutions all tutors taught all the subjects. They thus had a common background for thinking; they were united by common intellectual bonds; and their problems of living and working together, apart from squabbles over preferment, were relatively easy of solution. Moreover, they were in the early days united by a common faith. They were not beset by skepticism or torn between a variety of sects each affirming its own truth; they were seldom harassed by economic doubts, honest or dishonest. And to make the going smooth they governed themselves without the aid of trustees, deans, assistant deans, provosts, presidents, doormen, and bell hops. Upon this idyllic scene the modern age burst with shivering blasts. With a devastating sweep came natural science. It upset much that had been accepted as fixed beyond question. It did more. It introduced the method of microscopic research. With amazing rapidity, natural history, which was once taught in its majestic range by retired clergymen, was broken up into innumerable specialties - botany, biology, zoology, chemistry, physics, anthropology, and so on. Of necessity, the scientist, with truth about particular matters as his goal, sought to explore deeper and deeper the utmost ramifications of his subject. Only in that way could he find new truth, add to the sum of knowledge, win fame, secure promotion, and establish himself securely in his profession. Just as the scientists began to tear the old learning apart, the professions began to multiply with the growing complexity of our mechanized economic order. New opportunities opened before students in colleges, and nothing was more natural than the demand that their education should bear some relation to career. It always had. Greek and Latin had been indispensable to lawyers and clergymen. …