Abstract: Earliness studies were carried out on four strains (CRIS-19, CRIS-52, CRIS-133, CRIS-134) and one commercial variety CRIS-9 developed by CCRI Sakrand, during 1997 cotton season by evaluating five characters viz., plant height, main stem node number bearing 1st sympodial branch, number of days to bloom first flower / boll and number of days to attain 5-NAWF (Nodes Above White Flower) stage for their effectiveness in measuring earliness. The results demonstrated that the advance strains tested were 2 to 3 days earlier than CRIS-9 in opening their first flower, 2 to 6 days in attaining the stage of 5 - NAWF stage and 7 to 10 days in opening their first boll. It was also found that the characters attaining date of 5-NAWF stage and date of opening first boll were more reliable indicators of earliness as compared to others.