ONE-VAEIETY COTTOlSr COMMUNITIES. 5 



formation and interest in securing community agreement if supplies 

 of good seed are to be maintained. 



If farmers had to pay a tax or license of a cent a pound in order 

 to plant cotton of a different variety from their neighbors it is not 

 likely that many would pay the money to indulge in their individual 

 opinions, but they might become acutely interested in having the 

 best variety grown so that the whole community might agree to plant 

 this one kind and avoid paying the tax for miscellaneous planting. 

 Unconsciously, however, cotton farmers generally are paying more 

 than $5 a bale for operating under the present system of unorganized 

 production, with different varieties grown on neighboring farms, if 

 not actually on the same farm, taken to the same gin and sold in- 

 discriminately to the same buyers. 



A cent a pound, or $5 a bale, would be a very low estimate of the 

 advantage that might be gained by community effort through the 

 simplest precautions of planting even a medium quality of seed of 

 one recognized variety and marketing its cotton together in even- 

 running commercial lots, without considering the further improve- 

 ment of fiber quality or the larger yields that can be had by adopting 

 and maintaining superior varieties in place of the mixed stocks that 

 furnish so large a proportion of the present cotton crop. The full 

 advantage that could be expected in most places by using good 

 varieties and other improvements that are possible under the com- 

 munity plan would be estimated between 5 and 10 cents a pound, 

 with more in special cases as experience already has shown. This 

 means that the farmers' profits may often be doubled by applying 

 the improvements that are now definitely in sight under the com- 

 munity plan. 



With gradual improvement of machinery, spinning of finer threads 

 from short cotton has been accomplished, so that inferior fiber can 

 be used for most of the textile articles that in the early days of cotton 

 manufacture would have required much better raw material. Rela- 

 tively small quantities of long, strong fiber have continued to be 

 used for special purposes, such as sewing thread, automobile tires, 

 and high-pressure fire hose. The special uses have increased notably 

 in recent years with the development of the automobile industry, and 

 the supplies would be far below the normal requirement if extensive 

 substitution of short fiber were not practiced, even in articles that 

 require strength and durability and should be made of good ma- 

 terial. 



On account of the present scarcity and acute demand for better 

 cotton the manufacturing and commercial interests are recognizing 

 the need of research for the improvement of the product, but without 

 understanding that improved systems of production and of buying 



