EXTENSION OF COTTON PRODUCTION IN CALIFORNIA. 13 



The careless ginning of the cotton may seriously impair the value 

 of the fiber, injure the reputation of the product of the community, 

 and keep the farmer from getting a full price for his crop. Long 

 staples are more likely to suffer in this respect than short staples, 

 for there is greater need of careful ginning. Ginning is often con- 

 sidered by oil-mill companies a merely incidental line of business. 



Another way in which ill-advised management of oil mills has been 

 known to interfere with the agricultural development of commu- 

 nities is by bringing in and recommending to the farmers seed of 

 inferior varieties in complete disregard of the chief interest of the 

 community on the side of producing superior fiber. In some cases 

 attempts have. even been made by, the use of financial pressure to 

 force upon farmers the planting of varieties that were distinctly 

 inferior in quality of fiber, but were supposed to promise profits for 

 the oil business. 



AGRICULTURAL ADVANTAGES OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION. 



In addition to the need of special care to avoid mixing seed of dif- 

 ferent kinds of cotton, there is equal need to prevent crossing in the 

 field, which is likely to occur whenever two kinds of cotton are planted 

 close together or even in neighboring fields. The pollen of the cotton 

 plant is not blown about by the wind, because the surface of the 

 grains is sticky and adherent, but bees and other insects carry the 

 pollen, sometimes for half a mile or more. The closer the fields the 

 greater, of course, is the liability of crossing, so that in thickly set- 

 tled communities it becomes practically impossible for the individual 

 farmer to maintain a pure stock of a superior variety of cotton. 



The simplest and most effective way to avoid these dangers of 

 admixture and deterioration of varieties is for communities to 

 organize for the production of a single variety. The variety should 

 be determined, whenever possible, by preliminary experimental com- 

 parisons of the behavior of the more promising sorts grown under the 

 local conditions. The most effective test is to plant several small 

 blocks, consisting of four or five rows of each variety, alternately in 

 the same field, and to record the pickings of each row separately. 

 Such tests are being conducted by the Department of Agriculture in 

 cooperation with communities located in different parts of the 

 cotton belt. 



With only one variety grown in the community it becomes possible 

 to preserve its purity and uniformity by selection. It is useless to 

 expect that the fiber will continue to be uniform if the stock is 

 allowed to deteriorate through seed admixture or cross-pollination. 

 This not only lessens the commercial value of the fiber but diminishes 

 the yields, the aberrant plants being less fertile than the normal in- 



