ONE-VARIETY COTTON COMMUNITIES. 45 



A new Acala community has been organized recently in the 

 Coachella Valley of California, for the dual purpose of raising a 

 uniform product and developing large stocks of pure seed to supply 

 other irrigated valleys or for shipment to Texas or other eastern 

 States in seasons of crop failure or scarcity of planting seed, as in 

 1920. Interest has been attracted especially by the fact that very 

 large yields, at rates between 2 and 3 bales per acre, were obtained 

 in the season of 1920 from two small plantings of Acala cotton 

 grown at the Government date garden, about 2 miles west of Indio. 



The cotton growers in the Coachella Yalley have organized into 

 an association, and the seed grown at the Government date garden 

 is to be used as the basic stock. The date-garden plantings were 

 well isolated and ginned with every precaution to avoid any ad- 

 mixture with other varieties, and another stock of good Acala 

 seed was obtained from an isolated planting near Bakersfield, Calif., 

 so that there should be no occasion to plant any other kind of cot- 

 ton in the valley. The best of the Acala seed is planted on isolated 

 fields, away from any other variety of cotton or from fields that 

 have grown cotton recently. Arrangements have been made to have 

 one gin reserved exclusively for Acala cotton. 



On the basis of such precautions it is expected that seed raised in 

 the Coachella Valley may have special value for planting purposes, 

 not only for local use but for shipment to other cotton regions that 

 do not have good planting seed. The cooperation of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture of California is being sought by the Acala 

 association for inspecting the fields and certifying the quality of 

 seed, with such assistance as can be given by the United States 

 Department of Agriculture in roguing and selection work. Thus 

 it may be possible to develop in this valley, isolated from other 

 cotton-growing districts, an Acala seed stock of the highest quality. 



COMMUNITY UTILIZATION OF LONE STAR COTTON. 



The Lone Star variety, representing the Texas big-boll type 

 of cotton, somewhat similar to Triumph, or Mebane, and Eowden, 

 is now grown very extensively in Texas and adjacent States, and 

 even as far east as North Carolina. The Lone Star seed supplies 

 have been centered chiefly in northern Texas, and especially in 

 Hunt County, around Greenville. A field station has been main- 

 tained for several years at Greenville by the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture for the study of breeding and cultural prob- 

 lems of cotton. 



On account of the superiority of the fiber of the Lone Star 

 cotton, which often attains a length of 1^ inches under favorable 

 conditions, and often brings a premium of 2 or 3 cents a pound, 

 and sometimes more, the Lone Star communities have important ad- 



