Cotton production (quantity and quality) on the Texas High Plains is limited by the number of heat units available during the growing season. Producers, therefore, face a dilemma in their planting schedule. Early plantings to obtain good yield and fiber quality by having the crop mature early in the fall when temperatures are warm, risk poor stand establishment from cool spring soils. Later plantings, to ensure good stand establishment in warmer soils, risk poor yield and fiber quality from crop maturation in the cooler late fall conditions. Cold tolerant cotton genotypes would allow earlier planting; thus, allowing for more profit from reductions in seeding rates and obtaining greater yields of high quality fiber. This study was initiated to screen a number of commercial and experimental cotton genotypes for both early and late season cold tolerance and to identify or develop laboratory test(s) to identify this trait. The test will then be available to breeders to initially screen large numbers of breeding lines for this trait prior to field testing those lines that have been identified as cold tolerant. Two groups of seed were evaluated (one consisting of twenty-nine genotypes grown in a common environment and another group of sixteen genotypes produced in various locations) with various field, laboratory, and controlled environment tests. A good indicator of cold tolerance (one providing good separation between genotypes in both seed groups) was tested whereby seed were subjected to a 24 hour imbibition period in rolled foam pads at 5C (40F) then planted in sand at 18C (64F) and emergence counted after 21 days to determine a Cold Tolerance Rating (CTR).