We started developing our own version of a short season production system in 1977. After a hard freeze on October 6, 1976 had been a disaster. I sat down and evaluated our cotton program after that year. Our projected yields had dropped to 620 pounds of lint cotton per acre, which was an all time low, and unprofitable for irrigated cotton in our area. Of the seven previous years we had failed to fully mature our cotton crop in five of these years. We were forced to develop some kind of system to mature our cotton crop or quit raising it. Out of this necessity, we have developed our own version of a short season cotton production system. Our system has evolved over the years with many changes - and will probably change more in the future. Our short season cropping system has not been copied from anybody, but is very similar to other systems through out the cotton belt.