Inseason cotton monitoring techniques have been developed in Arkansas to provide a sensitive measure of crop development. The "Arkansas system" of monitoring was used in a field study to follow cotton plant response to various levels of damage from Lygus and Heliothis zea during early squaring in 1992 and 1993. Square retention, nodes above white flower, and yield variables from the treatments were used to explain plant response and compensation to early-season insect damage.