ONE-VARIETY COTTON COMMUNITIES. 29 



interest of the manufacturer and of the commercial world as of the 

 farming communities that would standardize their production and 

 place themselves in responsible, constructive relations with the in- 

 dustrial world. 



The tendency to speculative campaigns, or " booms," for exclu- 

 sive or excessive planting of a crop that seems promising is espe- 

 cially strong in the southwestern valleys where new lands are being 

 developed and new crops are being sought to get the high returns 

 that are necessary to meet the cost of irrigation works, leveling the 

 land, and other improvements. Under these conditions stronger 

 tendencies to intensive industrial developments of agriculture are 

 to be expected, away from the older forms of diversified farming 

 that were based primarily upon supplying the needs of the family 

 instead of producing a commercial crop. Instead of expecting a 

 return to more primitive systems of diversified farming, of which 

 there is little prospect in the irrigated valleys, the hope of future 

 progress seems to lie in the direction of balanced systems of pro- 

 duction, grouped around special, highly developed industries which 

 receive primary attention as the main source of the farm income. 

 If the chief money crop is to be cotton it is all the more important 

 to hold to one type and variety, so that the quality may be main- 

 tained, the culture perfected, and the relations to other crops 

 definitely adjusted. 



A suggestion has been made in Arizona and California that com- 

 munity local-option laws might be passed that would make it possible 

 for the farmers of any locality or district to establish the culture of 

 a single variety and secure legal protection against the planting of 

 other kinds of cotton, to the detriment of the community. In the 

 Southwestern States the legal recognition of organized cotton com- 

 munities would follow the analogy of the system that allows the 

 farmers to organize themselves into irrigation districts, take re- 

 sponsibilities for building dams, canals, or other improvements, and 

 assess the costs against the lands that are in reach of the water 

 supply. Other analogies may be found in the laws that have been 

 passed in many States for controlling weeds, plant diseases, and 

 insect pests or for abating nuisances of other kinds. 



There can be no question of the injury that would be suffered by 

 farmers who have established pure seed supplies of a superior variety 

 of cotton if a careless, ignorant, or malicious neighbor should plant 

 an inferior variety or mixed stock. This not only would destroy the 

 value of the surrounding fields for pure seed, but would impair the 

 seed and quality of fiber of the whole community if the inferior seed 

 were taken to the public gin. The underlying principle of such regu- 

 lations is to assert the right of the community to agree upon and 

 carry through such general community improvements. A system 



