March 1, 1917.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



319 





i_OTTGx Ready for Shipment at Calexico^ Imperial Valley, l,alifornia. 



Long-Staple American Cotton by Irrigation. 



A MIRACLE is being performed m that part of the United 

 States known as "the great Southwest,'' which promises 

 soon to become the principal American source of long- 

 staple cotton. Irrigation has provided the key to successful 

 agriculture in Arizona, southern California and northern Mexico, 

 where hundreds of thousands of acres of arid lands and great 

 stretches of the Colorado Desert, on which only sagebrush, 

 cactus and the pallid Spanish dagger formerly grew, are being 

 transformed into one of the most bountifully productive regions 

 of America. Grains, fruits, nuts, alfalfa, sugar cane, garden 

 truck and live stock have in the past been looked upon as the 

 chief products of irrigation, but the tremendous cotton yields 

 of the past year indicate that this important crop may soon 

 take precedence over all others. Weavers of higher-grade 

 fabrics who are striving to meet the growing demands of rubber 

 tire and other manufacturers are focusing their attention upon 

 this remarkable development in the belief that an adequate sup- 

 ply of long-staple cotton grown within our borders will soon be 

 assured. A few leading tire concerns are manifesting even 

 more direct interest, one having contracted with a planter in 

 Imperial Valley, California, to take annually for five years the 

 entire crop from 5,000 acres of new land, and the other being 

 aDout to plant 1,000 acres of cotton in Salt River Valley, Arizona, 

 to insure its supply of tire fabric. 



Although the United States provides considerably more than 

 half the world's cotton production (57.4 per cent in 1915) and 

 exports a tremendous quantity annually (6,191,110 bales for the 

 year ending July 31, 1916, or more than half the year's ginnings) 

 it does not grow an adequate supply of long-staple cotton to 

 meet the American demand for thread, knit goods, lace, tire 

 and other higher-grade fabrics requiring great strength. Of the 

 420,995 bales of foreign cotton imported during the fiscal year 

 1916, statistics show that 350,796 were long-staple Egyptian. At 

 least half of this was used in the manufacture of tire fabrics, 

 for it should be noticed that considerably less than 1 per cent of 

 the total 1915 American cotton crop of 11,191,820 bales was of 

 the Sea Island variety. With slight prospect of any considerable 

 increase in this percentage it is not surprising that the phenome- 

 nal growth of the cotton planting industry in California since 

 1909 should set tire manufacturers and fabric weavers to think- 

 ing. 



Tires average about 5 pounds of fabric each, and as it is esti- 

 mated that the 1917 tire production will reach 25,000,000, about 

 125,000,000 pounds of fabric, equivalent to. over 250,000 bales 

 of long-staple cotton, will be required to meet this demand 

 alone. 350,000 acres planted to Durango or Egyptian cotton in 

 the Southwest and scientifically cultivated would render the 

 American tire industry independent of irnports, and this is only 

 a little over one-third of the unimproved land in Imperial 

 Valley alone that can be irrigated by tha available water supply, 

 which can be even further increased by the building of reservoirs. 



The outstanding fact which has awakened the tire industry 

 to its great opportunity is the 1916 crop of Imperial Valley 

 cotton, grown entirely by irrigation and amounting to 70,000 



bales— equivalent to 76 per cent of the 1915 Sea Island total 

 of 91,844 bales, 5,824 of which were exported. Not all of this 

 was long-staple, though it might have been, for the Durango 

 variety thrives there and is said by experts to be equal in 

 quality to the choicest Sea Island and better than much of the 

 Egyptian cotton now offered to the trade. 



From approximately 100,000 acres on both sides of the in- 

 ternational boundary, about 45,000 acres in the United States 

 and 55,000 in Mexico, the 1916 crop reached the record total of 

 40,000 sliort-staple bales of big boll mebane, averaging 18 cents 

 a pound, and 30,000 long-staple Durango bales averaging 24 

 cents. Some of the formerbrought as high as 19 cents, and of 

 the latter as high as 28 cents, so that the value of the total 

 cotton yield of Imperial Valley is estimated at $7,500,000 to 

 $8,000,000, making this the premier crop of what is becoming 

 the richest agricultural community in California. 



As it costs an average of 9 cents per pound to produce short- 

 staple cotton and 12 cents to grow, pick, haul and gin the long- 

 staple, the planter who sold at 18 cents and 24 cents respectively, 

 as many did, doubled his investment at the rate of $45 and 

 $60 per bale, to which may be added $15 to $20 per bale for 

 the seed. This profit of $60 to $80 per bale, the prospect of 

 growing a bale or better per acre, together with an ever- 

 growing demand at record prices are the inducements that will 

 probably double the cotton acreage of Imperial Valley in 1917. 



Despite the prospect of enormous cotton acreages throughout 

 the South next year, 95 per cent of this will be short-staple so 

 that record crops will not depress the high prices obtainable for 

 the California product, because the demand for long-staple will 

 still be in excess of the probable supply. Buyers who are trying 

 to contract forward for Imperial Valley short-staple cotton at 

 17 cents and long-staple at 23 cents are finding few takers, for 

 the planters realize that the present surplus on hand is smaller 

 than at any time within the past decade, and that with increased 

 consumption and a short crop in other growing countries, the 

 end of the war, should it occur, would immediately open up 

 greater markets abroad. Should the war continue, they also 

 know that American munition manufacturers consumed 900,000 

 bales during the year 1916, exclusive of heavy exports to Ca- 

 nadian, British and French factories. 



Witli the entire question of cotton as one of the permanent and 

 most important farm industries of southern California appar- 

 ently settled for good and all, Los Angeles, as a great cotton 

 market of the near future, promises to take its place beside ths 

 great cotton ports of the South, and to outstrip Savannah, 

 Brunswick, Pensacola and Charleston as a shipping point for 

 long-staple cotton. Its railway connections and fine harbor 

 provide the shipping facilities to send cotton textiles all over 

 the country, the western hemispliere and even around the world, 

 and already local capitalists of vision are beginning to discuss 

 a project to erect large yarn and weaving mills. A growing 

 conviction is being manifested that cotton goods and ])y-products 

 for consumption west of the Rocky Mountains should be manu- 

 factured in California. 



