2 BULLETIN 1111, U, S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTUEE. 



Lack of pure seed is responsible for a general failure to utilize 

 superior varieties of cotton and for enormous industrial and eco- 

 nomic wastes through the production of inferior fiber and the manu- 

 facture of weak, perishable fabrics. The cotton industry absorbs the 

 activities of millions of people, which could be applied to better ad- 

 vantage in raising better crops of cotton and making better goods. 

 The producing and manufacturing operations are on a low plane of 

 efficiency, working with raw material of needlessly inferior quality 

 because the seed is poor. It is self-evident that the breeding of su- 

 perior varieties does not result in the improvement of the cotton in- 

 dustry unless good seed becomes available and is used generally as 

 the basis of production. Seed is necessary to raise cotton, and good 

 seed must be planted if good fiber is to be obtained. The pure-seed 

 problems must be solved, as well as the breeding problems, before 

 superior varieties can be utilized. 



Through the simple expedient of adhering to one variety in each 

 community, the present degenerate mixed stocks could be replaced 

 with pure seed of superior varieties. Cooperation, to the extent of 

 agreeing to plant the same variety of cotton, is necessary if farmers 

 are to have regular supplies of pure seed for their own use or to sell. 

 The individual farmer, struggling alone with the idea that he can 

 improve his crop and get a higher price in growing better fiber, is 

 much more likely to fail than to succeed, but the prospect is altered 

 completely when a whole community of farmers adopts and maintains 

 an improved variety. Through community action it is possible to 

 observe the necessary precautions, so that superior varieties can be 

 preserved, increased, and utilized. This has been demonstrated in 

 the striking progress made in recent years in the Salt River Valley 

 of Arizona, where the growers have specialized on a single variety. 



Considered as a means of utilizing superior varieties, community 

 organization is as practical a need and as definitely related to the 

 improvement of production as the invention of a new implement to 

 cultivate the crop, a new fertilizer to stimulate the growth of the 

 plants, or a new spray to keep off pests or diseases. Farmers and 

 agricultural promoters would understand readily if superior varie- 

 ties of cotton had to be grown on particular soils or special cultural 

 treatment had to be given, but one-variety community organization 

 is also to be reckoned as a condition or requirement for the produc- 

 tion of good fiber. Though not so generally or so easily recognized 

 by those who have been accustomed to think only of the farm opera- 

 tions, the community conditions may reduce or increase the profits 

 of production as definitely as the other conditions of soil, rainfall, 

 weevil infestation, or labor supply. 



