Newer cotton varieties when compared to their ancestral lines have a smaller leaf area and higher yield. The study was designed to determine the relationship between leaf size, leaf area, leaf number, vegetative dry weight and lint yield of 56 random lines from a semi-dwarf cotton composite population. The affect of different levels of water availability on the relationships between traits was also investigated.

Due to verticillium wilt the lint yield could not be related to performance of leaf traits. Boll number and boll weight showed differences between means for water levels at 88 days after planting. The leaf traits responded differently to the two water levels. There were significant correlations between the leaf traits and boll weight and number. Using these correlations and an analysis of variance of the material by water levels a sink-source change occurred at 88 days after planting, with a strong response to the stress at the lower water availability.