ONE-VARIETY COTTON COMMUNITIES. 11 
An appreciable mixture with the short-staple cotton, in some fields from 4 to 6 
per cent, occurred in this manner. 
Admixture of Dnrango cotton with Egyptian also resulted from putting 
Durango seed into sacks in which Egyptian seed cotton had been carried to 
the gins. Fields planted with this seed showed a scattering of Egyptian plants 
among the Durango. The changing of sacks without proper care in cleaning 
them, it would seem, might be a very common cause of mixture. 
The purity of another carefully guarded field of Durango cotton was jeopar- 
dized by the carelessness of a neighbor who had left some short-staple seed by 
the roadside. In preparing the land for the Durango cotton some of the short- 
staple seed was dragged into the field. The owner knew nothing of this until 
the scattering short-staple plants were noticed in one corner of the field. 
and then the origin of the contamination was traced. In this case immediate 
attention was given to the removal of the short-staple plants, which were 
easily distinguished from the Durango. 
A final instance is that of a farmer who took pains to secure a good stock of 
Durango seed for planting his field, but he did not secure a complete stand, 
so replanted with Triumph short-staple cotton to fill the vacant places. 
As a result of such accidents and oversights a large proportion of the fields 
are more or less contaminated. 3 
Keeping seed pure under conditions of constant danger of mixing 
is not only a difficult undertaking, but so precarious that only the 
most progressive and persistent farmers are likely to continue their 
efforts beyond a few seasons. With a background of such incidents 
it is almost needless to say that the Durango seed stocks were not 
maintained in the Imperial Valley, since the effort did not result in 
establishing one-variety conditions of production in any locality. 
Egyptian cotton. Durango cotton, and short-staple cotton are still 
grown, but of inferior quality, as the seed stocks are contaminated. 
DETERIORATION THROUGH PUBLIC GINS. 
The public-gin system, which gives each farmer an admixture of 
his neighbors' seed, is largely responsible for bringing the cotton in- 
dustry to the present condition, that cattle or pther live stock might 
reach if the pastures were not fenced or if all the herds were run 
together in the breeding season. Xeedless to say. there would be 
no pure breeds of cattle under such a system, and it is equally out of 
the question to maintain pure varieties of cotton while different kinds 
are planted in the same districts, mixed together at the gins, and 
cross-pollinated in the fields. In spite of breeding better varieties 
and efforts to increase the seed supplies, the good stocks still repre- 
sent only an infinitesimal part of the volume of production. Millions 
of bales of needlessly inferior cotton are produced every year from 
seed that should have gone to the oil mills instead of being planted. 
3 Cook, O. F. The relation of cotton buying to cotton growing. U. S. Dept. Agr. Bui. 
60, 21 p. 1914. 
