PRODUCTION OP AMERICAN EGYPTIAN COTTON. 11 



ing field for the introduction of this type of cotton. In the early 

 stages of the work, however, serious difficulties were encountered in 

 this region also. The most important of these were the following: 

 (1) The lack of proper facilities for carrying on the plant-breeding 

 work and the investigations of cultural methods; (2) lack of uni- 

 formity in the imported stocks of seed and slow progress in the 

 development of a productive type having fiber of sufficiently good 

 quality and uniformity to warrant its recommendation for com- 

 mercial production; and (3) lack of information as to the proper 

 methods of irrigation and culture under the climatic and soil con- 

 ditions of the region. 



It also become apparent that, even if these cultural difficulties could 

 be overcome, certain economic problems would need to be solved be- 

 fore commercial production could be undertaken with any hope of 

 success. These problems were as follows: (1) The scarcity and high 

 price of labor in this thinly populated region, which threatened to 

 make the picking so expensive that no profit could be anticipated; 

 and (2) the difficulty of ginning and marketing the crop grown in 

 a small way by farmers in localities remote from, established cotton 

 markets. 



The first-mentioned difficulty was overcome when the Department 

 of Agriculture established two well-equipped experiment farms 

 where the plant-breeding work and the study of cultural methods 

 could be carried on from year to year on the same soils and under 

 the same management. One of these farms is the Cooperative Testing- 

 Garden at Sacaton, Ariz., conducted by the Bureau of Plant Industry 

 in cooperation with the Office of Indian Affairs, Department of the 

 Interior, and under the superintendence of Mr. S. H. Hastings (for- 

 merly of Mr. E. W. Hudson 1 ) . The other farm, at Bard, Cal., on the 

 Yuma Reclamation Project, is conducted by the Bureau of Plant 

 Industry in cooperation with the United States Reclamation Service 

 and is under the $uperintendence of Mr. R. E. Blair (formerly of Mr. 

 W. A. Peterson). 



UNSATISFACTORY CHARACTER OF THE ORIGINAL STOCKS. 



During the earlier years of the breeding work in Arizona the be- 

 havior of the plants was very unpromising. They made an extremely 

 rank growth, but were relatively unfruitful and late in maturing. 

 The bolls were small and often opened imperfectly. There was also 



1 Mr. Hudson, while superintendent of the Cooperative Testing Garden at Sacaton, took 

 a -very active part in the establishment of the industry in the Salt River Valley. 



Mr. Argyle McLachlan, now president of the Imperial Valley Long-Staple Cotton 

 Growers' Association, served for several years as field agent of the Department of Agri- 

 culture in the Southwest, and while his attention was devoted mainly to the Durango 

 cotton industry in the Imperial Valley, he also aided effectively in the work with Egyptian 

 cotton. 



