10 BULLETIN 324, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
In addition to the need of a cooperative selling agency to insure 
the growers full returns for long-staple cotton, there is an equally 
pressing requirement for the activity of a growers’ organization in 
connection with the maintenance of a supply of pure seed and the 
insistence upon intensive cultural practices. 
The Imperial Valley Long-Staple Cotton Growers’ Association 
was organized on a plan which guarantees that its operations shall 
be adequately financed by the initial charge per bale. It arranges 
for the warehousing and insuring of the baled cotton and sells 
the product of its members on instructions from them, rendering 
the members a full account of the transactions. All cotton is sold 
on classified samples, and reclamations have been practically nil on 
sales of over 8,000 bales in marketing the 1914 crop. The association 
has cooperated with the Department of Agriculture in the mainte- 
nance and distribution of pure Durango seed. 
STABILIZING LONG-STAPLE COTTON. 
Stabilization, the continuous production of a crop with a fixed 
high quality of fiber, is the great problem now confronting the 
cotton industry in the Imperial Valley, as well as in many other 
sections of the cotton belt. | q 
In actual application to the long-staple cotton industry, stabiliza- 
tion means the establishment of such practices in the growing and 
handling of cotton as will bring about the full realization of all the 
possibilities of the industry. It means the production of the one 
best variety of cotton throughout the community. It requires com- 
munity action to insure an adequate supply of pure seed. In ginning, 
it means turning out a smooth sample without defects resulting from 
careless mechanical handling. Once the community has established 
a reputation for producing consistently a high quality of cotton, the 
problem of satisfactory marketing is greatly simplified. To the 
manufacturer who avails himself of the opportunity, it means the 
assurance of an annual supply of the kind of cotton he requires. 
The problems in stabilization touch all interests concerned with 
the cotton industry. The cotton grower, the banker, the merchant, 
the ginner, the buyer, and the cotton manufacturer are all vitally 
interested, as they will all share in its advantages to a greater or lesser 
extent and should therefore contribute to its realization. 
THE GROWER AND STABILIZATION. 
The most important figure in the cotton industry is the cotton 
grower. His prominence entails responsibility, as it is by the grow- 
ing of marketable cotton that the most effective step toward stabiliza- 
tion will be taken. 
