ONE-VAEIETY COTTOISr COMMUNITIES. 33 



not only in relation to cotton production but in other possibilities 

 of improvement that need to be viewed from the same standpoint 

 of adapting our agricultural activities more fully and effectively to 

 our present state of progress. 



The outcome to be expected is that a new association of ideas may 

 develop and become firmly established in the minds of farmers, so 

 that they will think not only of having good seed and raising good 

 crops on their own individual farms but will have an equal apprecia- 

 tion of the practical importance to them of the progress of the com- 

 munity as a whole. To the motive of local patriotism that often is 

 urged for adopting improvements, there is added the direct interest 

 of each farmer in the quality of the community product as a whole, 

 since each farmer stands very clearly to get more for his cotton and 

 to have a better assured market for future crops if his neighbors 

 are also raising the same kind of cotton and the quality of the 

 variety is being maintained. An established reputation and assured 

 market for a staple product are practical assets for a community, 

 tending to increase the value of property and encourage public im- 

 provements. 



In communities that are not yet united for constructive work it is 

 better to place the first emphasis upon the general advantages of one- 

 variety organization rather than to insist upon the superiority of a 

 particular kind of cotton. It often is not possible to say which va- 

 riety is the best that can be had. Choice of varieties is limited gen- 

 erally by the fact that stocks of pure seed are obtainable for only a 

 few kinds. The first one-variety communities in each district will 

 profit especially by selling seed to other communities, which is an 

 immediate advantage in the early years of community development, 

 before the marketing and other features have had local demon- 

 strations. This consideration naturally will get preference for va- 

 rieties that have good prospects of general use, as distinguished 

 from those that require special conditions or are not widely known. 

 Pure seed often sells as readily in carload lots as in bushels or tons. 



Local experiments may be needed before the variety question can 

 be settled, and seasonal fluctuations of behavior may be very mis- 

 leading, so that several years may be required to reach definite 

 results. But even a poor variety will give better results with com- 

 munity handling than good varieties mixed together. An organ- 

 ized community can change promptly to a superior variety when a 

 definite advantage can be shown and seed can be obtained in suffi- 

 cient quantity. The Pima variety was substituted for the Yuma in 

 the Salt River Valley, Ariz., in the season of 1917, after a sufficient 

 stock of seed had been raised to plant the entire acreage. 



