6 BULLETIN 60, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



by failure to mark the bags or to keep them separate. The different lots were piled in 

 the same warehouse and some of the piles fell down. 



In one instance, at least, seed of another variety had been distributed as Durango 

 on the careless assumption that all kinds of long-staple cotton were much the same, 

 so that a substitution would be only a mild form of deception. The seed used in this 

 instance to replace Durango was of an inferior mixed stock and would give a very 

 misleading idea of the variety. 



Unmixed Durango cotton raised in the Imperial Valley was sent to the public gin 

 and the seed allowed to pass through the conveyors which had been used with short- 

 staple cotton and contained a quantity of the short-staple seed. An appreciable mix- 

 ture with the short-staple cotton, in some fields from 4 to 6 per cent, occurred in this 

 manner. 



Admixture of Durango cotton with Egyptian also resulted from putting Durango 

 seed into sacks in which Egj-ptian seed cotton had been carried to the gins. Fields 

 planted with this seed showed a scattering of Egyptian plants among the Durango. 

 The changing of sacks without proper caxe in cleaning them, it would seem, might 

 be a very common cause of mixture. 



The purity of another carefully guarded field of Durango cotton was jeopardized by 

 the carelessness of a neighbor who had left some short-staple seed by the roadside _ 

 In preparing the land for the Dm-ango cotton some of the short-staple seed was dragged 

 into the field. The owner knew nothing of this until the scattering short-staple plants 

 were noticed in one corner of the field, and then the origin of the contamination was 

 traced. In this case immediate attention was given to the removal of the short-staple 

 plants, which were easily distinguished from the Diirango. 



A final instance is that of a farmer who took pains to secure a good stock of Durango 

 seed for planting his field, but he did not secure a complete stand so replanted 

 with Triumph short-staple cotton to' fill the vacant places. 



As a result of such accidents and oversights a large proportion of the fields are more 

 or less contaminated. But a few of the growers who were able to secure clean seed 

 are following the advice of the Department of Agriculture in order to preserve the 

 purity of theiB seed. They have planted on land uncontaminated with other cotton 

 and will use proper precaution to prevent mixing with other varieties in handling 

 and ginning the cotton in the faU. They propose to carry through, for planting in 

 1914, quantities of Durango seed as clean as the stock from which it is being grown 

 this season. 



The number of these more careful or more fortunate farmers is not large, but the 

 seed they are raising would plant a large acreage of pure Durango next year if the 

 importance of using clean seed were properly appreciated. But as long as the farmers 

 who have mixed fields can get as high a price for their fiber as those who have pure 

 fields, they are likely to continue the planting of their mixed stocks instead of making 

 a new beginning with pure seed and guarding with more care against contamination 

 in the future. 



DISCRIMINATION IN BUYING MORE IMPORTANT THAN fflGH PRICES. 



That prices determine the production of a crop is a familiar idea, 

 but the state of the cotton industry shows that high prices alone 

 can not be rehed upon to increase the production of superior fiber. 

 The buying of the crop with proper discrimination is just as neces- 

 sary' in estabhshing and maintaining production as any factor of 

 climate, soil, cultivation, or other agricultural requirement. The 

 higher grades of Egyptian cotton are now worth approximately 

 twice a8 much as the standard middling grade of short staples, while 



