At the second annual meeting of the Cotton Disease Council 50 years ago in Nashville, Tennessee, the discussions centered around research to evaluate the influence of seed quality, time of planting, nature of organisms carried by the seed and seed treatments. Undelinted cotton was compared to acid delinted seed. The latter increasing emergence by about three days. Cereson seed treatments were compared to various copper compounds, with seed treatments giving a much greater benefit in the early plantings than in the late plantings. Fungi of concern on the seed were Fusarium moniliforme and anthracnose (Glomerella gossypi). Two seed dusting machines were evaluated. namely: Calkuns Manufacturing Co., Spokane, WA and Gustafson Seed Grain Machinery Co., Fargo, ND, which could handle seed at the rate of three bushels per minute.

As the summary of cotton disease losses between 1952 and 1981, prepared by J.M. Halloin, shows, there are four major diseases of cotton: seedling diseases, boll rots, Verticillium wilt and nematodes. Thus, three of the major diseases of cotton are soil borne.