284 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



Cotton Bonanza in the Southwest. 



TALES OF THE COTTON CROPS 111 soiilliern California and Arizona 

 begin lo rival those of the early gold discoveries. When the 

 United Stales went to war every effort was made to induce 

 the planters to increase their acreage in anticipation of a long 

 and protracted struggle, and now the results are beginning to 

 show in the prediction that this year the net yield to the growers 

 in this section will be in the vicinity of $40,000,000. 



When it is considered that this addition to the wealth of the 

 country is gained mostly from sections which were formerly 

 considered waste and unprotitahle lands the achievement from a 

 financial standpoint seems all the more remarkable. Regions in 

 California previously considered prosperous have been made more 

 so while desert spaces of Arizona have been made to yield from 

 $150 an acre upwards. Families that several months ago were 

 living from hand to mouth and were barely able to rent land on a 

 crop basis arc now riding round in automobiles, according lo 

 reports from these districts. 



.\ltogether more than 177,800 acres are planted to cotton in 

 southern California and .\rizona. In Imperial \'allcy 67,816 acres 

 are planted on the American side of the line and 60,000 acres are 

 planted on the Mexican side, yielding from half to three-quarters 

 of a bale per acre. Prices for 100,000 bales produced the past 

 year in Imperial Valley are said to have ranged from 35 cents 

 to 55 cents a pound. Tliese record prices, the result of a shortage 

 of cotton throughout the South, have so enthused the valley that 

 the planters are already figuring on a further increase of cotton 

 acreage. As to the grade of the cotton produced, this can best 

 be illustrated by the market reports. When the December de- 

 livery in the New Orleans market was quoted at 38 cents a pound, 

 •the price of the Imperial Valley product was S3 cents, a premium 

 for quality of 15 cents a pound. 



.■\s an illustration of the growth of the industry in Imperial 

 \alley, arrivals of 50 cars a day at Calexico, the cotton center 

 of the valley, are not infrequent. On the first of November the 



avera<-;e daily receipts of cars at Calexico and Mcxicali is around 

 15 cars, but this gradually creeps up and the high point is during 

 the month of December. These cars are handled by the Inter- 

 California railroad. A typical day's business last fall was the 

 occasion when forty-nine cars arrived, seventeen of which were 

 from across the line and twelve were consigned to one gin, ten 

 being from this side of the line coming into Calexico and the 

 remaining 22 being direct from Mexicali. A much larger number 

 of carloads were picked in the valley that day, but gins at El 

 Centre, Imperial, Brawley and Holtville took their share. Of the 



approximalcly 25 gins in the valky, b.v far the larger number are 

 located at Calexico and Mexicali. 



These two towns are unique, in that they arc the only places 

 in the United States where cotton is received in carload lots for 

 ginning. The gins in the South are scattered through the cotton 

 raising section and are more numerous, but the cotton is invari- 

 ably hauled in wagons from the field to the gins. Ten carloads 

 of seed a day are brought across the line, some of it being com- 

 pressed in Calexico, but the bulk of it going to oil mills in Los 

 Angeles. Some of it is shipped to Texas, also for compress. 



Sacking Arizon.^ Cotton. 



Imperial Valley cotton seed is always in demand at high prices as 

 oil mill men who buy for its oil content say it is richer in oil 

 than any grown elsewhere in the United States. A large amount 

 is shipped east to points where the crop is poor and is there 

 replanted, even growers in the South recognizing it as superior 

 to any pi'oduced in even the best cotton-growing sections. 



Pima or Egyptian cotton has come into favor in a few sections 

 of the valley, and it commands a price of from 55 to 85 cents a 

 pound, but it is very difficult to gin properly. The gin at Seeley 

 is said to be the only one adapted to handling this kind of cotton. 

 The variety generally grown is the Durango or medium long 

 staple variety, which made its way several years ago from 

 Mexico where plants were growing along the ancient ditch banks 

 and canal beds. This cotton attained its highest state of maturity 

 in the Imperial Valley and is widely cultivated. Seven thousand 

 acres were planted to Pima or Egyptian long-staple cotton last 

 year, but because of the market, which has not yet become fully 

 developed, the growers experienced difficulty in getting the price 

 they anticipated and the acreage dropped this year to 5,000. 



Imperial Valley has been entirely free of labor difficulties the 

 past year. On the American side of the line the pickers have 

 received $2 a hundred, averaging $4 a day and up, and on the 

 Mexican side Chinese laborers who picked the crop averaged 

 $1.40 a hundred. Cotton insect pests are rare, but one, the "leaf 

 miner," being heard of to atiy extent. The best remedy for this 

 is to plant early and to pick as soon as possible. The insect does 

 not get started until late and does no particular damage if the 

 cotton is handled in this manner. 



Palo Verde cotton acreages for the last five years have been : 

 in 1915, 1,700; in 1916, 4,800; in 1917, 7,000; in 1918, 12,700, and 

 this last year 20,000, representing a growth in aggregate crop 

 values each year from a few thousand dollars to over $5,000,000. 

 Crop conditions published in the government reports in November, 

 1919, including up to October 25, show the average condition of 



