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



It is very desirable that experimental efforts in cotton growing be 

 limited to communities in which the general agricultural conditions, 

 as well as the present interests and activities of the community, are 

 such as to give ground for a reasonable expectation that an annual 

 irrigated crop like cotton, if found to thrive, would be likely to be- 

 come a permanent resource. For a few scattered individual farmers 

 to plant cotton in communities that are not likely to engage regularly 

 in its production is not advisable. It is expensive to ship cotton 

 seed and not worth while to install gins and oil mills unless the pro- 

 duction of cotton reaches commercial proportions. 



RETURNS THAT MAY BE EXPECTED FROM COTTON. 



The first step toward the commercial planting of cotton, or con- 

 sidering it as a practical alternative of any other crop, is to determine 

 whether cotton is likely to be more profitable or at least sufficiently 

 remunerative to be added to the existing series of crops. Undoubt- 

 edly the chief obstacle to the production of cotton on a large scale in 

 the San Joaquin Valley and other districts of California lies in the 

 fact that attention has been directed to other industries that have 

 been considered more profitable than cotton growing. While cotton 

 can probably be grown on many lands that are now used only for 

 grain or pasture, it seems reasonable to expect that at least the first 

 beginnings with cotton in new localities will be made by farmers who 

 are already settled on the land and engaged in the production of 

 fruit or other intensive crops. 



Even at the highest prices for cotton it should not be expected to 

 compete with the bonanza figures that are sometimes realized from 

 fruit crops. Though acre returns of $150 or even $200 are not alto- 

 gether impossible, they can be obtained only in exceptional conjunc- 

 tions of very large yields and very high prices, like those that ruled 

 in the season of 1916, when 40 cents and upward per pound was ob- 

 tained. 



The most that can be considered as a reasonable expectation from 

 cotton at moderate, normal prices is a gross return of $75 to $100 

 per acre. This is on the basis of Durango or some other Upland 

 long-staple variety selling between 15 and 20 cents a pound and yield- 

 ing at the rate of a bale per acre, which requires favorable conditions 

 and good farming. The cost of production per pound increases with 

 every reduction in yield, because the cultural operations and the ir- 

 rigation water have to be applied to poor-yielding cotton as well as 

 to good. 



With a yield of a bale of 500 pounds of lint cotton the cost of pick- 

 ing an acre of the Durango variety is between $15 and $20, an 

 amount about equal to the total cost of the previous care of the crop, 



