4 BULLETIN 533, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



there is as little occasion for farmers to undertake to bring in Upland 

 seed from the cotton belt as to get Egyptian seed from Egypt. To 

 make importations of Egyptian or other foreign seed is contrary to 

 regulations under the Federal plant-quarantine law and the State 

 quarantine law of California and is extremely dangerous on account 

 of the possibility of introducing the boll weevil or other parasites. 

 The ravages of the pink boll worm in Egypt, India, and other regions 

 show that it is a very serious pest, like the boll weevil. It is of 

 the utmost importance to keep these insects out if cotton growing is 

 to develop in California. While regular importations of seed are 

 prevented, the public needs to be warned of the danger from seed 

 that may be brought in casually by travelers or immigrants from 

 foreign countries or by settlers from Texas or other weevil-infested 

 States. 



COTTON FORMERLY GROWN IN CALIFORNIA. 



In the San Joaquin Valley, cotton growing can hardly be consid- 

 ered as a new industry but rather as a return to a beginning that was 

 made in the early years of the agricultural history of the State, in the 

 middle of the last century, and maintained through the period of the 

 Civil War and beyond. The Ninth Census, that for 1870, notes the 

 production of 34 bales of cotton in San Diego County, but it is 

 known that larger acreages of cotton were being planted in the San 

 Joaquin Valley during this period. 



In the report of the Tenth Census, that for 1880, published in 

 1884, California was included with the other cotton-growing States 

 on a basis of production of 295 bales, grown on 375 acres in Merced 

 County, the lack of more complete statistics being explained by a 

 note saying that " the enumeration schedules sent to this State did 

 not include cotton." 



In the general discussion of the conditions and prospects of cotton 

 culture in California, also published in the Tenth Census report, 

 plantings estimated at 1,500 to 2,000 acres are said to have been made 

 in Merced County in 1873, and in that year a firm of Merced County 

 growers made an export shipment of 22,886 pounds of cotton to 

 Liverpool. This seems to have marked the climax of the early ef- 

 forts, but areas of 350 to 500 acres continued to be planted in the 

 next decade, or possibly later, though no cotton was returned from 

 California in the Eleventh Census, that for 1890. 



Hilgard shows that cotton had begun to attract attention in Cali- 

 fornia as far back as 1856, when a premium of $75 was offered by 

 the State Agricultural Society for the best acre of cotton. In 1862 

 the State Legislature offered an aggregate of $6,500 in premiums for 

 cotton in lots of 100 bales, the best lot to be rewarded with $3,000, but 

 the prizes remained unclaimed until 1865, when the $3,000 was paid 

 to a farmer in Los Angeles County who raised 108 acres, the yield 



