28 BULLETIN 1111, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



to full size, and many have abortive, shriveled embryos, while the 

 fiber is both shorter and weaker than that of the normally developed 

 bolls. Parts of the same field or the earlier or later bolls on the 

 same plants may grow to full size and produce good fiber, but the 

 crop as a whole is inferior. The mixture of weak " perished " fiber 

 from the shriveled, poorly developed bolls impairs the textile quality 

 as definitely as a mixture of short cotton unless the damage is avoided 

 by picking the injured cotton separately. Cotton that develops 

 under uniformly favorable conditions not only yields more but the 

 fiber is of much higher textile value, which undoubtedly would be 

 recognized in the market if a more practical system of buying were 

 developed. 



Field-inspection buying could be used to advantage even in mixed- 

 variety communities, to avoid the worst and most uneven stocks or 

 fields injured by unfavorable conditions, but the crop could be much 

 more effectively standardized in one-variety communities, on account 

 of the greater familiarity with the chosen variety and easier and 

 more definite' recognition of its characters and behavior. The general 

 tendency of such a system would be progressive in relation to varie- 

 ties and to careful growing of the crop. Not only the farmer who 

 planted low-quality or mixed seed could be detected and avoided by 

 buyers, but the differences that result from cultural conditions could 

 be recognized in classing the cotton. Organized communities would 

 be able to get the full value of the more uniform fiber that they are 

 able to produce, in addition to the other advantages of using superior 

 varieties. 



RELATION OF COMMUNITY PRODUCTION TO DIVERSIFIED 



FARMING. 



Community organization to maintain production of the same kind 

 of cotton from year to year gives a better basis of developing a 

 well-balanced system of agriculture. Regularity of production and 

 uniformity of product are fundamental factors in the utilization, 

 market demand, and commercial value of an industrial raw material. 

 Plunging from one crop or from one variety of cotton to another, 

 so that one year there is a surplus and the next year a " cotton 

 famine," is not properly to be described as diversification, but rather 

 as " wild-cat " agriculture. No sort of cotton can attain its true 

 industrial value without regularity of supply and the development 

 of confidence by the industrial world that the same raw material 

 is to be available from year to year in approximately the same 

 quantities. In other words, stabilizing production, which is pos- 

 sible through community organization and in no other way yet 

 suggested, would be an advantage to the industry, as clearly in the 



