ARIZONA EGYPTIAN COTTON, RESULT OF SELECTION 



Egyptian cotton grown at Yuma, Arizona, after several years of selection, showing the fruit- 

 fulness of the plants and the manner in which the ripe cotton hangs from the bolls, making 

 picking easy. (Fig. 3.) 



Upon examination of the remarkably 

 uniform progeny row which was grown 

 the year following from seed produced by 

 this plant ; it was at once evident that an- 

 other new and very distinct variety had 

 appeared. As compared with the parent 

 variety (Yuma), Pima is distinguished 

 by its fewer vegetative branches and 

 better developed fruiting branches (Figs. 

 7 and 8), by its plumper, more sharply 

 pointed and less deeply pitted bolls 

 (Fig. 6), and by its longer (1^ to 1^4 

 inch), finer, silkier and lighter colored 

 fiber (Fig. 5).« 



The commercial production of Egyp- 

 tian cotton in Arizona began in 1912,^ 



' For more complete descriptions of the Yuma, Pima and Gila varieties, see Kearney, T. H. 

 Mutation in Egyptian Cotton. Journ. Agr. Res., Vol. ii (1914), pp. 287-302. Pis. 17-2.'>. 



^ Two years previously, when the complexity of the problems involved in the establishment of 

 this new agricultural enterprise had become apparent, the Chief of the Bureau of Plant Industry 

 appointed a Committee on Southwestern Cotton Culture. The original members of this com- 

 mittee were Messrs. O. F. Cook, C. S. vScofield, W. T. Swingle and T. H. Kearney, all of whom 

 had previously collaborated in various phases of the work. Air. C. J. Brand, Chief of the Bureau 

 of Markets and Rural Organization, and Mr. K. F. Kellerman, Associate Chief of the Bureau of 

 Plant Industry, subsequently became members of the committee. 



54 



developed by Mr. E. W. Hudson from a 

 plant selected in 1908 in a field of accli- 

 matized Mit Afifi cotton at Sacaton, 

 Arizona. While less different from Mit 

 Afifi than are the Ytmia and Somerton 

 varieties, the Gila seemed to be sufii- 

 ciently distinct to warrant its recogni- 

 tion as a separate variety. 



The three Arizona varieties thus far 

 mentioned were all selected out of Mit 

 Afifi. The Pima variety, on the other 

 hand, was derived from Mit Afifi 

 through Yimia. In 1910, in a field of 

 Ytmia cotton at Sacaton, Arizona, a 

 plant was selected because of its superior 

 productiveness and length of filler. 



