Technical Abstract: During the last week of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) flower bud (square) development, the increased rate of elongation is thought to involve a shift from cell division to cell expansion. During this stage, starch is possibly broken down into sugars. This increase in osmoticum would attract additional water into cells of the square, thereby increasing the turgor pressure. This allows the stretching of cell walls required during cell expansion. The objective was to provide an initial characterization of this sequence of events. The nonstructural carbohydrate composition was determined throughout development of first-position squares on Deltapine 50 plants grown in 1997 at Mississippi State University. Sugars were extracted with hot aqueous ethanol. After clean-up of the extracts, sugars were quantified colorimetrically through use of coupled-enzyme techniques. Preliminary results indicated that the extent of sucrose hydrolysis did not change with the time of day in younger buds.