Six cotton cultivars grown at two locations in Arkansas, were tested for seed quality by leachate analysis. DPL 61 proved to be the highest quality seed from both locations. Emergence tests under simulated crusting conditions with high and low quality seed, selected by the leachate screening tests, indicated that crusted emergence of cotton seed could be at least partially predicted by leachate analysis. Mepiquat chloride treatment of the same seed produced en hanced emergence displacement for the treated seedlings, when compared-to the untreated seedlings. Chilling injury to cotton seedlings was lessened by MC seed treatment for only the more sensitive cultivars from the "unhardened" location, which had not received precipitation for two weeks prior to harvest.