COTTON 



large areas, namely, the Salt River Valley in Arizona 

 and the Imperial Valley in California. There, under 

 irrigation, superior varieties both of long staple Upland 

 and Egyptian have been produced which offered great 

 possibilities; but the cost of picking, especially in the 

 case of the Egyptian, was so high as to be practically 

 prohibitive. The following quotation is from a Govern- 

 ment report recently published: "The cost of picking 

 Egyptian cotton was no less variable than the cost of 

 production. On the irrigated land of the south-west 

 the cotton plants grow very large with many branches. 

 When loaded with a heavy cotton crop the plants bend 

 over and become so entangled that it is difficult to get 

 through the field. Where the acreages were small for 

 each family no cash outlay for picking was needed. In 

 the Imperial Valley, where labour was scarce and there 

 was a lively demand for pickers in adjacent fields of 

 short staple cotton, it was sometimes found necessary 

 to pay from 3 to 3^ cents per Ib. for picking. In the 

 Salt River Valley, on the other hand, the labour supply 

 was adequate and the bulk of the crop was picked for 

 2 cents per Ib. These prices, of course, refer to the seed- 

 cotton." Taking the average ginning out-turn as one- 

 third, this means that the cost of picking in these cases 

 was from 6 to loj cents per Ib. of lint. It only remains 

 to add that the cotton fetched approximately 21 cents 

 per Ib., so that in some cases the cost of picking was 

 actually one-half of the value of the lint. 



Compare with this the cost of picking Egyptian cotton 

 in Egypt, which is quoted in a recent report as P.T. 75 

 ($3-75) per acre yielding 5 kantars (say 500 Ib.) of lint 

 cotton, equivalent to a cost of f cent per Ib. of lint, 

 against 6 to ic-J cents in California. 



Had labour been the only extravagant item in the cost 

 of production of cotton in America the situation might 

 have been tolerable, but all the other items seem to be 

 rising, too. Farm implements, horses and mules, and 

 supplies of all kinds, including food both for man and 

 beast, have gone up in price to a very serious extent. 

 Thus, reverting to the Texas case, all the other charges 

 except labour, i.e., interest on and depreciation of capital, 

 in the form of implements, plant, draught animals (but 



