36 BULLETIN 1111, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
been perfected recently. According to recent information from Prof. 
C. B. Williams, 58 communities have been organized in different 
parts of the State, and marked improvements in the crop are re- 
ported. A general report of the community work published in 1920 
states that an average increase of $28.97 per acre Over a period of five 
years was obtained from the use of the selected varieties instead of 
ordinary gin-run seed. An estimate of $41,000,000 is made in an 
article by F. H. Jeter in the Progressive Farmer as the amount that 
would have been added to North Carolina farmers' bank accounts 
if they had all used the varieties of cotton best suited to their needs. 7 
Although distinct and valuable progress undoubtedly can be made 
by getting farmers to plant good seed and discard inferior stocks, 
even without adopting the one-variety plan, it nevertheless is plain 
that the full objects and possibilities of improvement will not be 
attained. Testing varieties of cotton to determine which is the best 
for any locality is not easy, on account of the wide fluctuations of 
seasonal conditions and behavior that must be taken into account 
before a reliable conclusion can be reached. Even with only two or 
three varieties in a community many precautions of isolation and 
separate ginning must be observed. Ginning difficulties are reduced 
by having certain days to gin the cotton of the different varieties for 
seed purposes, but thorough cleaning of the gins requires time and 
labor. Even with the best intentions both the cotton and the seed 
are likely to be mixed somewhat unless very careful and persistent 
attention is given. Without these precautions there is the necessity 
of obtaining new seed of the popular varieties every two or three 
years. Xot only are these difficulties to be avoided by community 
organization, but one-variety communities are able to sell seed in- 
stead of having to buy new stocks frequently. 
PIMA COTTON COMMUNITIES. 
The oldest and best established one-variety community is in the 
Salt Eiver Valley of Arizona, where the Pima variety of Egyptian 
cotton is grown exclusively. The nature of this development needs 
especially to be understood because of the efforts that have been 
made to repeat the successes of the Salt River Valley merely by 
taking the seed of the Pima variety to other districts, without un- 
derstanding the one-variety plan that has made it possible to estab- 
lish the new industry in Arizona and that the same plan may be 
of value even beyond the range of the Pima variety. Experiments 
have shown that the Egyptian type of cotton is much better adapted 
7 Jeter. F. II. Your community's cotton reputation. How some communities are build- 
ing good cotton names and capitalizing them. In Prog. Farmer, v. 36, no. 5, p. 358. 
1921. 
