COMMUNITY PRODUCTION OF EGYPTIAN COTTON. 17 



occupy a reservation adjoining the Salt River project, have taken 

 up cotton growing to some extent on their own lands and have also 

 been employed as cotton pickers by the white settlers. The Papagos 

 occupy a large tract of land lying south of the Pima Reservation. 

 There are several thousands of these Indians, and as they lead a 

 rather nomadic existence because of the uncertainty of the desert 

 water supply, they find a season of cotton picking a congenial method 

 of employment and have taken to it readily. Last year several hun- 

 dred of them were engaged in the work throughout the picking sea- 

 son, with very satisfactory results to themselves and to the cotton 

 growers. 1 



The present indications are that if the cotton acreage in the Salt 

 River Valley does not increase too rapidly and if the growers con- 

 tinue to give the problem the attention it deserves, there will be no 

 serious shortage of pickers. While the cost of picking is high, the 

 other costs of production are not excessive, and if the jdelds are good 

 the value of the crop is sufficiently great to carry the picking cost 

 and leace a satisfactory margin of profit to the grower. 2 



COMMUNITY CREDIT FOR FINANCING THE CROP. 



The production of cotton in a new region involves some arrange- 

 ment for financing the crop until it can be sold. The expenses of 

 production up to the time of picking are not much greater than with 

 other farm crops, but ordinarily the pickers must be paid promptly, 

 and the cost of picking, together with the cost of ginning, requires 

 an outlay of funds greater than farmers can ordinarily meet without 

 special credit arrangements. This is particularly true when cotton 

 growing is being undertaken in a new region, because the marketing 

 of the crop takes more time than when the industry is well estab- 

 lished. Under such conditions the crop can rarely be sold as soon as 

 it is ginned. It must be classed and assembled into uniform lots, and 

 must move to market gradually if the best prices are to be obtained. 

 Even in the case of the well-established cotton industry in Egypt the 

 crop moves to the market very gradually, much of it not reaching the 

 manufacturer until the following spring or summer. Meanwhile, it 

 must be financed. 



1 It is estimated that in 1913 about $20,000 and in 1914 about $37,500 was paid to 

 Indians of the Tapago and Pima tribes as wages for picking cotton in the Salt River 

 Valley. These sums, in addition to what was derived from the sale of the crops grown 

 on the reservation lands, indicate that the combined income from Egyptian cotton which 

 accrued to the Indians of southern Arizona approximated $40,000 in 1913 and $50,000 

 in 1914. 



2 T^e extent to which the money brought into the locality by this new crop is dis- 

 tributed among the population is indicated by the estimate that during the picking season 

 of 1914-15 a total of $150,000 was paid out in wages to cotton pickers in the Salt River 

 Valley. 



