AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 201 



cotton-growing but renders all early efforts to estab- 

 lish it interesting. 



In 1856 the California State Agricultural Society 

 offered a premium of $75 for the best acre of cotton, 

 evidently to determine whether the many growers 

 of a few plants previous to that time could be raised 

 to an acre standard. This test did not produce 

 results, for, although continued for several years, 

 no awards were recorded. In 1862 in the hope of 

 escaping the effects of the war on the supply from 

 the southern states, state prizes were offered of $3000 

 for the first hundred bales of cotton., to be followed 

 by awards of $2000, $1000 and $500 for the same 

 amount in the three succeeding years. These prizes 

 were subsequently declared awardable in fractions for 

 small amounts of cotton. In 1865 an award of $3000 

 was made to Matthew Keller for cotton grown in Los 

 Angeles County. At that time there were about 700 

 acres of cotton in Los Angeles County and in southern 

 San Joaquin A^alley. In 1871 Colonel J. M. Strong, 

 after small tests for several years, planted a hundred 

 acres in Merced County. The following year Merced 

 County had seven hundred acres and Kern County 

 one hundred and forty acres and in that year cotton 

 gins were set up in both counties. In 1873 Merced 

 County possessed from fifteen hundred to two thou- 

 sand acres and the Buckley brothers made a ship- 

 ment of ten tons to Liverpool, the first commercial 

 export of cotton from California. In the few follow- 

 ing years cotton was continuously grown in Merced, 

 Kings and Kern counties, and the success of the 



