COTTON FARMING IN THE SOUTHWEST. 11 



In southern Texas, as well as in Arizona and California, irrigation 

 facilitit's hare been provided largely with a view to other crops that 

 have been considered more profitable than cotton. The present 

 indications are that cotton will be recognized eventually as the chief 

 agricultural resource of many enterprises that have been promoted 

 on the basis of more specidative truck and fruit crops. Such crops 

 are much more likely to be established on a permanent basis by 

 farmers who can assure themselves of an ordinary living from cotton 

 or other staple products than by farmers entirely dependent on the 

 sale of cantaloupes, onions, or other precarious specialties. 



Yet it would be entirely unreasonable to expect that all of the 

 present settlers m the Southwest will become successful cotton 

 farmers. Many have not engaged in farming except as a s])eculation 

 and m the hope of sudden wealth from bonanza crops. They have 

 not adopted agriculture as a chosen occupation or as a life which 

 they prefer. The intention may be merely to hold on until the 

 community has passed through the pioneer period and then to sell 

 their land at a price that will enable them to find a more congenial 

 existence in town. Another element of the population comes to the 

 Southwest in search of health rather than to undertake farming. 

 Some of these health seekers have financial resources and are not 

 obliged to make a living from the land on which they settled. It 

 seems very strange in some of these southwestern settlements to 

 find so few able-bodied men on the land. But it often happens that 

 men who come to the Southwest as invalids are brought to study the 

 problem of adapting themselves to the country more carefully than 

 their neighbors and become especially useful citizens. In view of 

 the nature of the resident population it may be reckoned as one of the 

 advantages of cotton that it can employ the labor of those who are 

 not strong enough for other kinds of farm work. 



Compared with most of the crops that have been proposed for the 

 Southwest, cotton affords a surer return with a smaller demand of 

 heavy labor. The chief difficulty and expense in raising cotton lie in 

 the picking, but the labor is not severe or exacting as to the time when 

 it must be done. As a family crop for people who do their own work 

 and have some assistance from their wives and chOdren, cotton could 

 hardly be excelled. The harvest season extends over three or four 

 months, or even longer, so that much spare time can be used to advan- 

 tage in picking cotton. The planting of cotton as a supplementary 

 crop or for the small farmer is limited, of course, to districts where 

 ginning facilities exist, but in all such communities cotton may be 

 expected to contribute a large share to the local prosperity. 



The development of cotton culture may be expected to stimulate 

 the growth of many other industries in the Southwest, both agri- 

 cultural and commercial. The most serious handicap of the cotton 



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