10 BULLETIN 324, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



In addition to the need of a cooperative selling agency to insure 

 the growers full returns for long-staple cotton, there is an equally- 

 pressing requirement for the activity of a growers' organization in 

 connection with the maintenance of a supply of pure seed and the 

 insistence upon intensive cultural practices. 



The Imperial Valley Long- Staple Cotton Growers' Association 

 was organized on a plan which guarantees that its operations shall 

 be adequately financed by the initial charge per bale. It arranges 

 for the warehousing and insuring of the baled cotton and sells 

 the product of its members on instructions from them, rendering 

 the members a full account of the transactions. All cotton is sold 

 on classified samples, and reclamations have been practically nil on 

 sales of over 8,000 bales in marketing the 1914 crop. The association 

 has cooperated with the Department of Agriculture in the mainte- 

 nance and distribution of pure Durango seed. 



STABILIZING LONG-STAPLE COTTON. 



Stabilization, the continuous production of a crop with a fixed 

 high quality of fiber, is the great problem now confronting the 

 cotton industry in the Imperial Valley, as well as in many other 

 sections of the cotton belt. 



In actual application to the long-staple cotton industry, stabiliza- 

 tion means the establishment of such practices in the growing and 

 handling of cotton as will bring about the full realization of all the 

 possibilities of the industry. It means the production of the one 

 best variety of cotton throughout the community. It requires com- 

 munity action to insure an adequate supply of pure seed. In ginning, 

 it means turning out a smooth sample without defects resulting from 

 careless mechanical handling. Once the community has established 

 a reputation for producing consistently a high quality of cotton, the 

 problem of satisfactory marketing is greatly simplified. To the 

 manufacturer who avails himself of the opportunity, it means the 

 assurance of an annual supply of the kind of cotton he requires. 



The problems in stabilization touch all interests concerned with 

 the cotton industry. The cotton grower, the banker, the merchant, 

 the ginner, the buyer, and the cotton manufacturer are all vitally 

 interested, as they will all share in its advantages to a greater or lesser 

 extent and should therefore contribute to its realization. 



THE GROWER AND STABILIZATION. 



The most important figure in the cotton industry is the cotton 

 grower. His prominence entails responsibility, as it is by the grow- 

 ing of marketable cotton that the most effective step toward stabiliza- 

 tion will be taken. 



