COMMUNITY PRODUCTION OF DURANGO COTTON. 5 



invited representatives of the Department of Agriculture to inspect 

 their fields in the fall of 1910 and advise them as to which one of 

 the varieties being grown was the best. The inspection included 

 numerous fields of Mebane's Triumph, Georgia, World's Wonder, and 

 one or two small fields of Allen's Long-Staple cotton. Long-staple 

 cottons were not popular at that time, as only the small-boiled vari- 

 eties were known to growers in the valley. A choice had to be made 

 as to the best short-staple variety. When it was advised that seed 

 of the Triumph variety be retained for planting and that the seed 

 of all other varieties be sent to the mill for manufacture into oil, 

 the advice was acted upon, and early in 1912 a further supply of 

 Triumph seed was imported from Texas. This was a wise step, as 

 the seed of the 1909 crop, used for planting in 1910, had become badly 

 mixed. Since that time commercial plantings of short-staple cot- 

 ton have been practically confined to the Triumph variety. 



EGYPTIAN COTTON. 



In 1909 it was determined by the Department of Agriculture that 

 an improved acclimatized variety of Egyptian cotton was a success as 

 a field crop under irrigation in southern Arizona and southern Cali- 

 fornia. In 1912 a number of persons in the Imperial Valley were 

 sufficiently interested to plant small acreages (5 to 10 acres) of the 

 acclimatized Yuma variety. 1 While a few plantings yielded excel- 

 lent fiber and as much per acre as short-staple cotton, proving that 

 Egyptian cotton could be successfully raised in the Imperial Valley, 

 the test also demonstrated that labor conditions in that valley, as well 

 as the presence of Upland cotton, precluded the establishment of 

 Egyptian-cotton growing there at that time. 



LONG-STAPLE UPLAND COTTON. 



The future success of the cotton industry in the Imperial A^alley is 

 apparently contingent upon the extension of the production of long- 

 staple Upland cotton. Durango cotton, a 1^-inch Upland long- 

 staple cotton, 2 introduced into the Imperial Valley by the Department 

 of Agriculture in 1910, was planted on about 200 acres in 1912, at the 

 same time that the first planting of Egyptian cotton was made. 

 Previous to 1912 it had been demonstrated that the Durango cotton 

 was well suited to local conditions and that it yielded as well as short- 

 staple cotton. As grown under irrigation with an adequate and 



1 Kearney, T. If. breeding new types of Kgyptian cotton. U. S. Dcpt. Agr., Bur. Plant 

 Indus. Bui. 200, :::> p., i pi. L910. 

 Kearney, T. n., and Peterson, w a. Egyptian cotton in the southwestern United 

 . is. Dept. Agr., Bur. Plan! Cndus. Bnl. 128, 71 p., 2 flg., 5 pi. 1908. 



O. i . Durango cotton in the Imperial Valley. In r. s. Dept. Agr., Bur. Planl 

 Indu . ' ii in, p. 11 -sj., 5 flg. lfllB. 

 UcLacblan, Argyle. Culture ot Durango cotton in the imperial Valley. /» p. s. Dept. 

 Bur. Planl Indus. Clr. 121, p. :: 12. L918. 



