8 CIRCULAR NO. 118, BUREAU OP PLANT INDUSTRY. 



SCOPE OF INVESTIGATIONS. 



For several years we have been making investigations looking to 

 standardizing the grades of grain. More recently, similar work has 

 been taken up with respect to cotton. Much of the present efficiency 

 with which the California citrus crop is picked, packed, and shipped 

 is due to the brilliant work of one of the officers of this Bureau 

 in that field. The same organization has extended its work into 

 other branches of the fruit industry and is finding ways to inaugu- 

 rate marked improvements. 



Within the past year it has been found possible to begin a cam- 

 paign in connection with the handling and marketing of cotton. It 

 might be well to make a brief statement concerning this enterprise, 

 since it represents an effort to focus industrially several phases of 

 the Bureau's operations. For about 15 years we have been breeding 

 and distributing improved varieties of cotton in the South. Had 

 these new varieties of cotton been effectively utilized by southern 

 farmers the present cotton crop would be worth intrinsically at least 

 25 per cent more than it is, representing a matter of at least 

 $150,000,000. But these varieties have not been put into general 

 cultivation. Two or three of them have found places in restricted 

 localities and have displaced the older varieties, but none has yet 

 made a discernible impression on the cotton industry. There have 

 been two causes for this: (1) No adequate measures have been 

 taken to preserve these new varieties by continued selection after 

 they were distributed, and (2) the growers who received the seed in 

 small lots had no means of getting the cotton through to the manufac- 

 turer in such a way as to receive the increased price that it was worth. 

 These two difficulties must be overcome before we can make much 

 progress in improving the quality and increasing the value of the 

 cotton crop. 



In 1901, when it became apparent that the boll weevil had come 

 to stay and that it would probably spread throughout the cotton belt, 

 the Bureau of Plant Industry was authorized to begin an educational 

 campaign in the South to show how best to meet the ravages of this 

 pestiferous insect. This movement has since become known as 

 the Farmers' Cooperative Demonstration Work. A highly efficient 

 organization has been developed, through which it is possible to reach 

 a large proportion of the farmers of the South and to give them advice 

 and encouragement. 



Later, in 1909, the Bureau was authorized to investigate certain 

 technological features of the cotton industry and to establish a set of 

 official grades of cotton. 



[Cir. 118.] 



