16 BULLETIN 332, U. S. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 



The organization of the cotton growers of the Salt River Valley is 

 still far from complete, since in 1911 only about 40 per cent of the 

 total acreage of Egyptian cotton was represented in the central asso- 

 ciation. It is not likely, nor is it necessary to the success of the indus- 

 try, that all of the growers in a community will become active mem- 

 bers of the cooperative growing and marketing associations, but it 

 is of the utmost importance that all should adhere to the policy of 

 the organizations as regards the production of a single variety and 

 the use of carefully selected seed. The commercial reputation of the 

 cotton produced in the region, and hence the best interests of every 

 individual cotton grower, can be secured only by this means. 



LABOR FOR PICKING. 



From the beginning of the experiments with Egyptian-cotton pro- 

 duction in the Southwest it has been realized that the high cost of 

 picking would be one of the most difficult problems to overcome. 

 Hand labor is neither abundant nor cheap in these southwestern irri- 

 gated districts, yet a cheap and abundant supply of hand labor has 

 generally been regarded as essential to successful cotton production. 

 Picking Egyptian cotton requires greater care and is more expensive 

 than picking Upland cotton, owing to the smaller size of the Egyp- 

 tian bolls and the necessity of avoiding an admixture of such trash as 

 leaves and pieces of bolls. In picking long-staple cotton it is espe- 

 cially important to keep the seed cotton clean ; otherwise the grade of 

 the lint is impaired and its selling value is much reduced. The cot- 

 ton growers of the Salt River Valley have had to pay for picking at 

 the rate of $2 per 100 pounds of seed cotton, while in the Imperial 

 Valley, where big-boiled types of cotton are grown, the prevailing 

 rate has been $1 per 100 pounds. 



Notwithstanding these natural disadvantages, the problem of pick- 

 ing the crop of the Salt River Valley has been met successfully. It 

 has been found that pickers could make satisfactory wages when paid 

 at the rate mentioned. Although the industry has developed rapidly, 

 no serious shortage of labor has yet been experienced. This has been 

 due to the fact that the growers, through an active organization, have 

 attacked the problem in a businesslike way. In the first place, many 

 of the farmers had only small acreages and they and their families 

 were able to do most of the picking. This distribution of the acre- 

 age among small farmers is very desirable and should be encouraged. 

 There remained, however, a large acreage for which pickers had to 

 be secured, in addition to the home supply of labor. For this purpose 

 the floating population of the valley was drawn upon and Indians 

 were brought in from near-by reservations. 



There are two tribes of Indians in southern Arizona which include 

 a large number of industrious and capable workers. The Pimas, who 



