EXTENSION OE COTTON PRODUCTION IN CALIFORNIA. 5 
not being stated. The counties from which successful plantings were 
reported in the early period are Butte, Colusa, Fresno, Kern, Lake, 
Los Angeles, Merced, Sacramento, San Diego, Santa Barbara, 
Shasta, Sutter, Tulare, and Yolo. Other counties supposed to afford 
conditions favorable for cotton were Napa, Sonoma, and Tehama. 
The general conclusions reached by Hilgard from his detailed investi- 
gations of the California cotton industry in 1879 were stated as 
follows : 
From the record above given it appears that cotton has been successfully 
grown at many points, practically covering the whole of the great valley, a 
part of the foothill lands of Shasta and a part of Napa County, and to the 
southward all the agricultural portion of the southern region. By inference 
drawn from similarity of climate and products, without direct test, we may 
include within the possible cotton-growing portions of the State the valleys of 
Napa and Sonoma, the agricultural portion of Lake County, the foothill region 
of Tehama, and the entire lower foothills of the Sierra. On the other hand, 
all the bay region, as well as the seaward valleys of the entire Coast Range, 
are excluded from the cotton-growing area by reason of the cool summers, trade 
winds, and fogs to which they are subject. 
In addition it may be broadly stated that in the Sacramento Valley cotton 
may on deep soils be grown without irrigation, while in the San Joaquin 
Valley it, like all other crops, must be irrigated to insure profitable returns. 
The best experience seems, moreover, to indicate that, as in the case of the 
vine, the minimum irrigation that will enable the plant to develop is that which 
on the whole gives the best results, inasmuch as late irrigation especially tends 
to retard the opening of the bolls and in the low portions of the fields to 
start new growth, leaving the older bolls stationary. 
The Sea Island variety is a failure thus far wherever tried. That cotton 
culture has not assumed larger proportions in California as yet is adequately 
explained by the fact that the home market is, in the absence of cotton factories, 
extremely limited, and the long distance from the world's markets renders 
competition with the Atlantic Cotton States on the one hand and with India on 
the other a doubtful matter, which could be turned in favor of California only 
by exceptional circumstances, such as peculiar excellence of the staple. At the 
same time, cotton production has been found profitable so far as the home 
demand has gone, and good prices have been obtained ; and when exported the 
California staple has rated high in comparison with the average product of the 
Gulf States. 
What, then, are the inducements toward an expansion of cotton culture in 
California and the possible establishment of cotton factories on the coast to 
create a home demand? 
With the equalization of the prices of labor, in consequence of increased 
facilities of communication, there certainly is no reason why the home demand 
for cotton goods on the Pacific coast should not be supplied from home growth 
and manufacture, and there is reason why it might secure a large share of 
the Asiatic market, with which it is in the most direct connection. 1 
Hilgard referred to plantings of Sea Island cotton in several locali- 
ties, but in no case was success reported from this type of cotton. In 
1 Hilgard, E. W. Report on the physical and agricultural features of the State of 
California, with a discussion of the present and future of cotton production in the 
State. . . p. 76-77. In U. S. Dept. Int., Census Off., 10th Census, v. 6, pt. 2. 1884. 
