DURANGO COTTON IN THE IMPERIAL VALLEY. 1 



By 0. F. Cook. Bionomist in Charge of Crop Acclimatization and Adaptation 



Investigations. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Duraiigo cotton is a new type of long-staple Upland cotton recently 

 introduced and acclimatized by the United States Department of 

 Agriculture. The behavior of the Durango cotton in numerous 

 experimental and field plantings leaves no doubt that the variety 

 is well suited to the irrigated lands of the Imperial Valley of southern 

 California. Other long-staple varieties have given excellent results 

 when the conditions happened to be favorable, but the Durango 

 has shown a wider range of adaptation and has produced good crops 

 in places where other long-staple cottons were comparative failures. 

 The success of the new variety has aroused popular interest and is 

 stimulating the development of a long-staple cotton industry in 

 southern California. 



There is every reason to expect that long-staple cotton will 

 become one of the chief products of irrigation farming in the South- 

 west. In addition to very favorable natural conditions and the 

 absence of boll weevils, the cotton growers of the irrigated districts 

 are more ready to avail themselves of the many advantages that are 

 to be secured through the organization of local cotton-growing asso- 

 ciations for the production of a single superior type of cotton in the 

 community. 2 



DEVELOPMENT OF DURANGO COTTON. 



Durango cotton is one of several varieties developed by the De- 

 partment of Agriculture with a view to mitigating the injuries of 

 the boll weevil in Texas and adjacent States. The probability that 

 the weevil would seriously interfere with the cultivation of the late- 

 maturing types of long-staple Upland cotton formerly grown in the 

 Red River Valley and in the Yazoo Delta region of Mississippi and 

 Louisiana was foreseen several years before the long-staple districts 



1 Issued Fob. 1, 1913. 



2 These advantages have been considered in detail in an article published in the Yearbook of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture for 1911 under the title "Cotton improvement on a community basis." Separate 

 reprints of this article can be obtained by application to the Superintendent of Documents, Government 

 Print ing Oilier, Washington. D. C, upon the payment of a fee of 5 cents each. 



[Cir. HI] H 



