EXTENSION OF COTTON PRODUCTION IN CALIFORNIA. 15 



Experimental plantings in the region of Bakersfield indicate that 

 the Egyptian type of cotton can be grown in the southern part of the 

 San Joaquin Valley. No assurance can be given that Egyptian cot- 

 ton will mature a crop outside of the Bakersfield-Fresno region. If 

 plantings are to be made in the northern part of the San Joaquin 

 Valley or in the Sacramento Valley, the Durango cotton or other 

 long-staple Upland varieties are more likely to succeed, since they 

 do not require as long a season as the Egyptian. 



While cotton makes larger demands for hand labor than many 

 other crops its requirements for attention at particular times usually 

 are not so acute, which renders it well adapted for fitting in with 

 other crops to form practical systems of diversified agriculture. 

 Labor is needed chiefly at the picking season, which comes in the fall 

 after the grapes and most of the other fruit crops have been 

 harvested. 



Although favorable natural conditions may be found in many 

 places, it is not advisable to attempt to grow cotton on a commercial 

 scale except in communities that can be organized for this purpose, so 

 as to have an assured prospect of production on such a scale as to 

 warrant the establishment, preferably under community auspices, of 

 the ginning establishments and oil mills that are a part of the neces- 

 sary equipment of a cotton-producing community. 



Farmers in California are advised against undertaking the plant- 

 ing of cotton on a merely individual, basis, not only because of the 

 difficulties of handling and marketing a new crop to advantage, but 

 also in order to avoid as far as possible the danger of attempts being 

 made to bring in cotton seed either from the cotton belt or from 

 Egypt. Such importations of cotton seed are now forbidden by Fed- 

 eral and State regulations, the object being to prevent the introduc- 

 tion of the boll weevil from the cotton belt and the pink bollworm 

 from Egypt. 



Another reason for advising that efforts to establish cotton culture 

 be centralized in communities is that much more effective cooperation 

 can be extended by the different branches of the Department of Agri- 

 culture that have been working in recent years in cooperation with 

 new communities. The nature of the cotton industry is such that 

 many things can be done by communities which are impracticable for 

 the farmer who attempts to grow and market his crop individually. 



Efforts to establish the cotton industry in new districts have, of 

 necessity, to pass through an experimental period in order to deter- 

 mine the best variety to be grown, the special cultural methods re- 

 quired by the local conditions, the form of organization adapted to 

 the community, and the most desirable system of handling and mar- 

 keting, as well as to solve other problems that are encountered in 

 developing new communities. 



