4 BULLETIN 324, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
during the crop year of 1911. The 1913 crop, however. was three 
times as large as that of 1912. In 1914 approximately 48,000 bales 
were produced on 66,000 acres. 
GINS, OIL MILLS, AND COMPRESSES. 
The ginning equipment has kept pace with the expansion of the 
industry. The temporary equipment used for ginning the 1909 crop 
was replaced in 1910 by a complete ginning plant at each of five 
towns. By 1913 the number of gins had been increased to eight, and 
in 1914 more than double this number had been erected, in order to 
take care of the largely creased crop. The 19 gins now operated 
are owned by three separate companies. This equipment was more 
than sufficient to handle the 1914 crop. Half of these gins are lo- 
cated at Calexico, the border town, in order to handle the Mexican 
crop, which is all brought there for ginning. 
The first oil mill was erected at El Centro in 1911. In 1914 two 
more mills were erected, at Calexico, one of them a cold-compress 
mill. The capacity of the oil mills has been expanded somewhat 
beyond the present requirements of the industry. 
VARIETIES GROWN. 
SHORT-STAPLE COTTON. 
Short-staple cotton was grown almost exclusively for the first 
three years after the industry was started. Big-bolled varieties of 
Texas cotton were most popular, the Triumph and Rowden varieties 
predominating. The Triumph (Mebane’s) cotton has now come to 
be the short-staple variety usually planted. This is an indication 
of the progressive development the industry has been undergoing 
from the beginning, as Triumph cotton is an excellent variety for the 
Imperial Valley conditions. It yields well and produces uniform 
fiber from 1 inch to 1,4; inches in length. 
A number of short-staple varieties with small bolls and ununiform 
fiber, some of them quite inferior, have been tried on extensive acre- 
ages. The use of these varieties has been, as a rule, soon abandoned, 
but in crossing and mixing with seed stocks of good short-staple 
varieties they have left a damaging impress. The Georgia cotton 
introduced in 1909 and a variety called “ World’s Wonder ” intro- 
duced in 1910 are examples of such inferior varieties. 
Many of the growers have acquired all their experience in cotton 
growing in the Imperial Valley. These men have approached the 
problem of cotton growing under irrigation with open minds, which 
doubtless accounts in large measure for the success of the new 
industry. If better varieties and better cultural and marketing 
methods have become available, they have made use of them. It 
was in this spirit that their growers’ cooperative ginning company 
