14 CIRCULAE SrO. 132^ BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. 



of time and money that receive such careful determination in the 

 interest of agricultural miprovement. That a farmer may have the 

 physical strength to work through the southwestern summer does 

 not prove that it is good policy for him to use his energies in this way 

 in merely resisting exposure to adverse conditions which could be 

 avoided in other ways. Men who are living near the margin of physi- 

 cal endurance are not in condition to use the intelligent care and dis- 

 crimination that are needed to handle their crops to the best advan- 

 tage or to undertake such woi'k as the selection and roguing of seed 

 fields, which are among the necessities of successful cotton culture. 

 It is true that most of the heavy labor of cotton culture, the 

 plowmg, plantmg, and cultivation, is done in the sprmg before the 

 heated term begms, but the later cultivation, thuinmg, and roguing 

 may need to be attended to in hot weather, when irrigation becomes 

 especially important. The crop must have the attention that it 

 needs, as well as the labor. Indeed, the labor may easily fail of the 

 proper result if other precautions are neglected, and the danger of 

 neglect is greatest in hot weather. 



THE AGRICULTURAL IMPORTANCE OF THICK-WALLED HOUSES. 



Even the simplest precaution of securing protection against heat by 

 usmg thick-walled houses has been almost entirely neglected. The 

 fact that the winters are not severe has been taken to mean that 

 light, thin-walled wooden structures are sufficient, as they are in the 

 equable climate of the coast of California. In this, as in many other 

 respects, the experience of other hot, dry regions of the world has 

 been almost completely ignored in the Southwest. Buildings with 

 thick walls, either of masonry or adobe, are found m some of the 

 towns that date back to the period of Spanish or Mexican coloniza- 

 tion, but the value of such buildmgs as a means of protection agamst 

 extreme heat seems to have been left out of account almost entirely 

 in the settlements that have been made in recent decades. It does 

 not occur to a progressive American farmer to imitate his more back- 

 ward Mexican neighbors or to suppose that the Mexican methods of 

 building can be superior in any way to his own. 



The chief value of thick-walled houses in warm climates is that 

 they enable rest to be taken in the middle of the day when it is too 

 hot to work. With the temperature above 100° F., refreshmg sleep 

 or other forms of rest or recreation become impossible. It is easy 

 to fall into a feverish stupor which leaves one dazed and relaxed, 

 and often with a headache that continues for the remainder of the 

 day. When the air is heated to these extreme temperatures one 

 suffers no more out in the sun, where the perspiration evaporates more 

 rapidly and keeps the skm cooler. Men who are able to work through 



[Cir. 1.11'] 



