A special meeting took place during the 1984 Beltwide Cotton Production-Research Conference at which a problem of too many neps was brought to the attention of the cotton research community. A follow-up meeting was held in Dallas in march to discuss possible research approaches to the nep problem.

The results of only one of the lines of research which Dr. H.H, Ramey (then of ARS) proposed to investigate are presented. The purpose of this study was to determine if there were differences among cotton germplasm with regard to potential for nepping and whether location of growth affected numbers of neps.

The study was superimposed on two performance tests the Short Season Strains test and the High Quality Strains test. These tests were chosen for use because of the wide diversity of germplasm involved, the numbers of test locations included and the cooperation of those conducting the tests to supply the needed seed cotton.