[Cir. 132— Bl 



COTTON FARMING IN THE SOUTHWEST.^ 



By O. F. Cook, Bionomist in Charge of Crop Acclimatization and Adaptation Tnvesti- 



galions. 



INTRODUCTION. 



A new cotton industry is developing in the Southwestern States. 

 Instead of extending, as formerly supposed, only to the middle of 

 Texas, cotton culture now seems likely to become one of the chief 

 agricultural resources of the whole region from the Rio Grande Valley 

 in southern Texas through New Mexico and Arizona to the Imperial 

 Valley of southern California. 



The extension of cotton culture into the drier regions of the South- 

 west may be ascribed partly to the invasion of the former cotton belt 

 by the boll weevil and partly to the fact that the southwestern con- 

 ditions are really favorable for cotton culture. The drier climate 

 not only affords protection against the boll weevil but against other 

 dangers encountered in the Gulf States and along the Atlantic sea- 

 board. The wilt and anthracnose diseases are often serious, and 

 there are other insect enemies, such as the bollworm, the leaf worm, 

 and the red spider, which sometimes destroy the crop quite as effec- 

 tively as the boll weevil. 



Another important consideration is that the harvest season in the 

 Southwest is very long and usually quite rainless, so that the crop 

 can be gathered without loss or injury from discoloration. Wet 

 weather during the harvest season damages the eastern cotton crop 

 every year to the extent of many millions of dollars. Little account 

 is taken of such losses, because they are too frequent and familiar 

 and are considered as ordinary accidents of farming. 



It is no longer feared that the boll weevil will put an end to cotton 

 culture in the Gulf and South Atlantic States, but the danger of 

 weevil injury adds another element of uncertainty, so that the farmer 

 can not rely upon cotton to any such extent as in the past. Other 

 crops must be grown, and where these prove more profitable the 

 planting of cotton is likely to decline or to cease altogether. Even 

 in advance of the arrival of the boll weevil, cotton is losing ground 

 in some districts because of other factors that render the crop un- 

 certain. ■ 



' Issued July 19, 1913. 

 1618°— Cir. 132-13 2 9 



