June 1, 1919.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



Growing Cotton for Tire Fabrics. 



Cotton Ready for Shipment in San Joaqui 



ARIZONA'S cotton-planting challenge issued seven years ago 

 when a few far-sighted men started the bolls a-growing, 

 has been echoed by California, where the industry has 

 progressed far beyond the infant stage. The characteristic 

 energy and enterprise of the west- 

 erner have overcome all obstacles 

 and the returns have been phe- 

 nomenal in some cases and grati- 

 fying in all. 



In the Salt River valley in .Ari- 

 zona 34,000 bales of cotton were 

 produced in 1918, valued at 

 $12,000,000, while 85,000 acres have 

 been planted for the 1919 crop. 

 Not only are the farmers as- 

 sured of golden returns for their 

 labors, but the quality of the 

 product is of the very highest. 

 The eastern markets are awak- 

 ening to the fact that American 

 Egyptian cotton compares favor- 

 ably with either the genuine 

 Egyptian Sakellarides or Sea 

 Island. It is said that the yield 

 of Sea Island is steadily decreas- 

 ing, the total amount estimated 

 for this year being but 40,000 

 bales on an acreage of a quarter 

 of a million. The boll weevil is 

 said to be the chief cause of the 

 falling off. 



The cotton planters of Arizona 

 point with pride to the fact that 

 there is a distinct increase in the 

 length of the staple this season 

 as the result of careful seed selec- 

 tion under government inspection. 

 Ninety-eight per cent of the 



crop grown shows a length of fiber of \^i inches or better 

 with 81 per cent showing 1-11/16 inches or better. The quality 

 of Arizona Pima cotton has been demonstrated in the manu- 

 facture of tire fabrics and a constantly increasing demand is pre- 

 dicted. It is further declared that government tests in the air- 



craft program developed the fact that the Pima variety is excep- 

 tionally desirable for use in fine fabrics, owing lo its compara- 

 tively small waste, high quality, uniformity of run and unusual 

 length of fiber. As to the prices brought it is interesting to note 

 that recently an equivalent grade 

 of old-world Egyptian cotton sold 

 at Providence, Rhode Island, at 60 

 cents. 



A little concerning the history 

 of the successful Arizona experi- 

 ment is worthy of note. Although 

 in the early 'seventies Judge C. H. 

 Gray brought some cotton seed 

 from Georgia and tried it out in 

 Phoenix, where it was regarded 

 as more or less of a curiosity, it 

 was not until 1910 that an actual 

 beginning was made with the 

 Pima variety. This was developed 

 at the experimental farm at Saca- 

 ton by the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. This new 

 variety was produced at an aver- 

 age of V/2 inches in staple length, 

 and was raised in commercial 

 quantities in 1912, when some 280 

 bales were put on the market ; in 

 191o there were 2,200 bales; in 

 1914, 6,187 bales: in 1915. 1,095 

 bales; in 1916, 3,331 bales, and in 

 1917, 15,966 bales. 



The industry is now far past the 

 experimental stage and is pro- 

 gressing toward its flood tide. The 

 Pima variety has now almost en- 

 tirely superseded the original 

 Yuma. It is carefully segregated 

 throughout its growing and gin- 

 ning to avoid contamination by inferior grades, thus furnishing 

 pure, select seed, from which the record crop for this year is 

 expected. The war for a time laid a heavy hand on the cotton 

 industry, bringing to the front the inferior grades; this handicap 

 no longer exists and new fields are being planted everywhere. 



Rl\ER \ 



