ABSTRACT

Ten different varieties, seven smooth-leaf and three hairy-leaf, were obtained from 10 states across the Cotton Belt and ginned at Stoneville, MS, and Mesilla Park, NM, cotton ginning laboratories. Almost all of the measured seed cotton and lint parameters for the cottons ginned at Stoneville followed varietal lines. For the cotton ginned at Stoneville, dust concentration from the unloader fan cyclone was lowest for the cotton from Mississippi while the cotton from Oklahoma produced the highest dust concentration. The cotton ginned at Mesilla Park was not included in the analysis of variance but the highest concentration from the unloader fan was associated with the New Mexico Pima cotton. Dust concentrations from the lint cleaner exhaust were not significantly different for the cottons ginned at Stoneville. Cotton from West Texas yielded the highest dust concentration from the lint cleaner exhaust. Particle size distribution (PSD) of the unloader fan cyclone emissions showed that all the cotton ginned at Stoneville except the cotton from Oklahoma had a higher PSD for particles greater than 3.18 microns in diameter than the cottons ginned at Mesilla Park. However, the mass median diameters were not different for these cottons. The PSD of the lint cleaner condenser emissions showed cottons from California and New Mexico including the Pima cotton contained a higher percentage of particles less than 10 microns in diameter.