FARM ORGANIZATION IN SOUTHERN ARIZONA. 39 



the price had averaged about, 20 cents. In 19X5 the price again 

 went back to about 20 cents and in 1916 Egyptian cotton lint sold 

 as high as 70 cents a pound, f. o. b. at Phoenix, the most of the crop 

 selling as high as 40 to 45 cents. It is reported that owners of gins 

 offered to contract for the 1917 crop in advance at 27 cents. The 

 area planted to Egyptian cotton in 1917 was over 45,000 acres. 



With such variable prices records of the farm business are of little 

 value in establishing the place of Egyptian cotton in any system 

 of organization that might be proposed for the farms in the irrigated 

 valleys of southern Arizona. It may be stated, however, that 28 

 farms obtaining over 40 per cent of their receipts from Egyptian 

 cotton, the average percentage being 66.9 per cent, produced average 

 yields of 423 pounds of lint per acre, which was sold at an average 

 price of 15.9 cents per pound. The seed brought an average of 

 SI 4. 20 per ton. The farms averaged 88 acres in size and the gen- 

 eral results were as follows: Receipts, $4,176; farm income, $1,810; 

 labor income, $541. These results compare favorably with hay 

 farming, but are far below those obtained in dairy farming during the 

 same period of study. When the cotton is valued at 20 cents a 

 pound, however, the results become: Receipts, $4,670; farm income, 

 $2,370; labor income, $1,117. These results compare favorably 

 with those obtained in dairying, while with the price of cotton as 

 high as it was in 1916, even though labor advanced at least 50 per 

 cent, the enterprise was more profitable than dairying, although there 

 was also a considerable increase in the price paid for dairy products. 

 There were 76 records of farms upon which cotton was grown to a 

 greater or less extent, the most of these being taken in 1914 and none 

 after that year, and these were arranged in four groups based upon 

 increasing percentage of receipts from cotton. Both farm income 

 and labor income decreased steadily as the percentage of receipts 

 from cotton increased with the average price of cotton between 

 15 and 16 cents a pound. 



It may be safely stated, therefore, that with yields as high as 

 400 pounds of lint, and with a price as low as 15 cents a pound, cotton 

 farming is not so profitable as other well-established enterprises, 

 but since the price has been below 20 cents but one year out of the six 

 in which it has been grown in Arizona, the enterprise may be strongly 

 recommended to supplement the live stock interests now so firmly 

 established in these districts, the crop proving admirably adapted 

 for rotation with alfalfa. Picking charges during the period covered 

 by these studies were uniformly 2 cents a pound for seed cotton 

 and ginning charges were $10 a bale. The picking was done almost 

 entirely by Indian labor. 1 



1 See Farmers' Bulletin 577, " Growing Egyptian Cotton in the Salt River Valley, - ' and Bureau of Plant 

 Industry Bulletin 128, "Egyptian Cotton in Southwestern United States." 



