494 



Colonel J. M. Strong planted 200 acres ; Mr. C. S. Peclc 75 acres; Mr, 

 C. Deane 25 acres. The total area of all the plantations in this locality 

 was nearly 000 acres. These crops were all raised on alluvial bottonas 

 deposited by the Merced Kiver. They exhibited an exuberant growth 

 of weed, many stalks being from 4 to G feet high, with an unusual num- 

 ber of bolls. The lower branches, in some instances, were weighed 

 down so that the bolls rested upon the grouad. On thin light soils un- 

 <lerlaid with gravel the plant either opened its bolls prematurely or 

 dried up altogether. On moister soils, unirrigated, the growth was suf- 

 ficiently thrifty — from 3 to 5 feet : on still damper ground, or where irri- 

 gation had been used, it was too rank. Near Plainsberg, on Mariposa 

 Creek, about a dozen miles south of the Merced River, about 100 acres, 

 were planted in cotton. Mr. H. M. Euer raised a good crop on wheat- 

 land, unirrigated. He found the best soil to be light sandy loam or 

 sedimentary drift, which, when well pulverized, did not crust or bake. 

 In the same locality Mr. R. Harris planted 27 acres ; Mr. T. J. Wilcox 2& 

 acres ; Messrs. Turner and Helm 20 acres. The soil of this locality is 

 drier than on the Merced Elver plantations, and the cultivation not sa 

 careful, hence the stand secured was inferior. 



In Fresno County Mr. C. D. Davis planted 40 acres, near King's River^ 

 using 30 ])ouuds of seed per acre, with irrigation. He was sur- 

 prised to find the bolls at the second picking as numerous and opening as 

 freely as at the first. His entire expense of cultivation is reported at 

 $770, giving a margin of profit so broad as to induce him to enlarge his^ 

 plantation to 160 acres in 1873. It is currently estimated that during 

 the coming season 1,000 acres will be planted in cotton in Fresno^ 

 County. 



Mr. G. W. Allan, near Bakersfield, Kern County, exhibited fine speci- 

 mens of Dixon, Texas, and Golden Prolific cotton, which, though 

 planted late — some of it in June — matured a month earlier than it 

 would have done in his native State, South Carolina, producing a finer 

 and whiter staple. He finds the cotton season of that locality remark- 

 ably long, no injurious frosts to be apprehended from April 1 to October 

 10. Cotton not being planted till after the close of the rainy seasoii 

 does not require the laborious and expensive process of hoeing to keep 

 down the weeds. As it is gathered before the next rain-fall, there is no 

 occasion for " moating'*or separatingtherain-stainedfiberfromtheclean. 

 Mr. Stein raised a small crop in the same locality in a young vineyard. 

 It was a fair crop, though somewhat neglected in its earlier stages. 

 The growth was as thrifty on the alkaline portions of the field as on any 

 other. 



The " California Cotton-Growers' and Manufactures' Association ^' 

 purchased 10,000 acres near Bakersfield. Of this area only 300 acre.s^ 

 were planted the past season on account of the difficulty of obtaining 

 good seed. A i)ortion of this crop being freely irrigated, was ruined by 

 weeds. Other portions, to which this process had been more sparingly 

 applied, produced a fair crop. That portion which escaped the inflic- 

 tion entirely made a remarkably fine growth. Superior samples of 

 Peerless, Dixon, Golden Prolific, and Texas were exhibited, of which 

 the earlier planted were the more excellent. The association proposes 

 to plant 2,000 acres in 1873. To encourage the growth of the staple 

 during the coming season, it will, without charge, furnish the neigh- 

 boring cultivators with good seed and gin all their crops. 



A considerable importation of cotton-gins has been made, especially 

 of portable machines, in different parts of the State. The crop real- 

 ized from 20 to 22 cents per pound in different localities. 



