Effects of Spraying with Ethephon and Early Topping on the Growth, Yield, and Earliness of Cotton under Late-Sowing and High-Density Cultivation Modes
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear Editor
Agronomy
Please find enclosed my revision of the manuscript ID agronomy-2347940
Manuscript Title:
Early topping and spraying high concentrations of ethephon in cotton improve earliness in the late-sowing and high-density cultivation model
The paper suffers several drawbacks that may be rejected. It is questionable whether represents any significant contribution to the field; hence, I remain unconvinced that the authors did not revise the manuscript carefully, thy just rearranged the words in the sentence. In any case, I highly encourage the authors to carefully review point by point to clarify some issues and eventually improve the manuscript. Please see the attachment file
There are some problems with this manuscript
1. In statistical evaluation tables, standard errors should be added in important parameters.
2. The statistical analysis in wrong, they must do two-way ANOVA which indicates the effect of each factor alone and subsequently indicates the interaction effect.
3. I don't understand to use Duncan's multiple-range tests. Why did you use this test? The reason why is not clear to me. Many statisticians pointed out the problem in this test: Type I error rate is high (i.e. Ryan 1959; Scheffe 1959; Petrinovich and Hardyck1969…….
4. Some sentences are not quite well constructed, which may confuse and compromise the flow of the manuscript, they must be rewritten to be more understandable.
5. Some sentences need a references
6. Please did not start any sentence with an abbreviation
7. The author used unsuitable words
8. Please indicate why the sampling date is different
9. The researcher is inaccurate because the numbers of the figures are inconsistent and some of them are not mentioned in the text, in addition, that they did not explain the effect of the ethephon on a number of characteristics.
10. There is no control treatment for ethophon !!!!!!!!!
11. Discussion is very poor and used more unsuitable information that is far from the study’s interest, it must be rewritten with a concentration on the outcomes of your manuscript as well as other references
12. In the conclusion section, the authors simply repeat the results and fail to highlight the importance of this study and what readers could learn from this study that is different from others. The conclusion also not summarized the hypothesis about the major mechanisms of heavy metal injuries. Please make this summarizing, because, the main aim of any scientific manuscript, does not only to describe the effect but also to make suggestion about mechanisms. If we will know the mechanisms, we can improve or reinforce the influences. If we will have no information about the mechanism, we can make mistakes. Please rewrite with concentration indicating the most important finding or recommendation
Yours truly
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
Important subject and comprehensive study...
However, it is not clear is it ethephon based product already registered for comercial use or not.
What acctualy means ''higher ethephon concentration''?
What is regular concentration?
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
The paper shows interesting findings on early topping and spraying high concentrations of ethephon in cotton. There are several typos which need to be corrected. Also, the authors cited 11 Figures in the text, but only 9 are available in the manuscript – which is difficult to follow. The following are some specific comments to consider.
Title: To me, the title looks like a sentence. It is better to revise the title and put something attractive.
Line 18-19: “Of note, the model can easily lead to late maturity and reduced yield.” This is not clear. Please rewrite it.
Line 20: “A two-year field experiment”. It is better to add the period within brackets.
Line 38: The purpose of late sowing is not clear.
Line 40: Authors mentioned that late sowing is advantageous because it accelerates vegetative growth. It is better to explain here how late sowing accelerates vegetative growth.
Line 77: Clearly clarify what are Ethylene and Ethephon
Lines 72-82: There is enough published information to show the use of Ethephon in the cotton industry, which was not highlighted here. It is better to mention them here.
Lines 83-84: “Previous studies collectively postulate that a suitable plant topping date and ethephon concentration improves earliness and promotes concentrated spitting …” Please mention the previous studies and their findings rather than just mention it in a sentence even without references.
Lines 88-90: “This paper reports the findings of a two-year field experiment carried out to study the effect of the plant topping date and ethephon concentration on cotton growth”. Is this necessary here?
Lines 97-98: It is better to remove the part of the sentence starting with “to study the effect of the plant …” because it is already mentioned in the manuscript. No need again in the methodology.
Line 98: Normally we do not mention “soil fertility data”. You can use something like “soil properties”
Section 2.1. Experimental sites: The content in Figure 1 is good. I would like to see the average/ general climate data (such as mean annual rainfall, and temperature) in the text. This is because two years of data cannot be used to generalize the climate.
Section 2.2.1. Experimental cotton cultivar: Please add more information on the selected cultivar. For example, yield, and other parameters mentioned in the results which may be helpful in the latter part of the manuscript.
Line 202: Figure numbers are not consistent. Also, the Figure 2 caption should be improved.
Line 213: Note of the table is not clear. Different letters in columns or rows or all?
Figure captions: Some figure captions need to be improved.
Table 3,4,5: It is difficult to compare the content in three tables. Instead, please show the data in a different way. Maybe authors can put 3 experiments into one table and separate a few tables for combined parameters. Just an idea.
Table 6,7,8: Please see my previous comment on Table 3,4,5.
Line 314: “Principal component analysis (PCA) of 14 traits”. Which traits? The Captions is incomplete.
Lines 368-369: Please add the level of significance within brackets.
Conclusions: Better to revise the conclusions. Please summarize the content and align it with the objectives. No need unnecessary information which is already mentioned previously.
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear Editor
Please find enclosed my revision of the manuscript ID agronomy-2347940
Manuscript Title:
Early topping and spraying high concentrations of ethephon in cotton improve earliness in the late-sowing and high-density cultivation model
The paper suffers petty drawbacks that may require minor revision as indicated in revised manuscript to clarify some issues and eventually improve the manuscript.
Yours truly
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
The authors improved the paper according to the comments.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
On behalf of my co-authors, we thank you very much for giving us an opportunity to revise our manuscript again. You comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to us researches.
Once again, we thank you very much for your comments and suggestions.
Sincerely Yours,
Professor Liantao Liu
College of Agronomy
Hebei Agricultural University,
No. 2596 South Lucky Road, Baoding
Hebei P.R. China.
Tel: +86 (0)312 7520660.
E-mail: [email protected]
