ACALA COTTON IN CALIFORNIA 11 
SALE OF ASSOCIATION SEED, CROP OF 1921 
The association had seed of three grades or degrees of purity from 
the 1921 crop which it offered for sale outside of the Coachella Val- 
ley: (1) Seed grown on clean land and isolated from other varieties, 
(2) seed grown on clean land but not isolated, and (3) seed from 
fields that were neither clean nor isolated. A price of $200 a ton or 
10 cents a pound was set for the best seed and lower prices for the 
seed that had been subject to mixture in the field, since all of the 
seed had been protected from mixture at the gin. The price of 
10 cents a pound, established for the best seed to be sold outside of 
the valley, automatically determined the price of the rogued seed 
which was to be sold in the valley at the same figure. 
The results of handling more than one grade of seed, however, are 
likely to prove rather unfortunate, as in this instance : Many of the 
southwestern cotton growers had heard of the good results obtained 
with the Acala variety and wished to buy seed but preferred buying 
cheaper grades rather than paying the additional price asked for 
the best Acala seed. The result was that the poorer seed was dis- 
posed of first, at about $75 a ton f. o. b. Coachella, and very little 
of the best seed was sold. Later it became necessary to reduce the 
price of the better seed before it could be disposed of. Had the 
demand for Acala planting seed not been great enough to utilize the 
entire stock, such a procedure would have resulted in only the poorer 
seed being planted, while the better seed would have remained in a 
warehouse, unutilized, or would have been sold to the oil mill. 
Through the cooperation of the county horticultural commissioner 
the association's seed was certified by the local horticultural inspec- 
tor, who had examined the fields and supervised the ginning. 
From the crop of 1921 the association sold 44 tons of seed for 1922 
planting in other districts, which at 20 pounds to the acre would 
plant 4,400 acres. The association returned to the growers about 
$81.25 a ton. Most of the seed went to the Imperial and Palo Verde 
Valleys in California and a little to Arizona. The data regarding 
the sale of association seed from the crop of 1921 are given in Table 
4 (p. 41) in comparison with similar data for later years. 
BREEDING WORK IN 1921 
The seed that was being increased to meet the rapidly expanding 
demand for Acala was the best obtainable in the Southwest, but it 
did not represent the best possible development of the Acala vari- 
ety and was not sufficiently uniform. The original seed sent to 
California was already several years from a breeding block. The 
8-acre planting made with this seed in the San Joaquin Valley in 1919 
was rogued, but roguing can not be expected to prevent dete- 
rioration unless precautions are taken against cross-pollination and 
mixing at the gin. None of the 1920 Acala plantings in the San 
Joaquin Valley were rogued; hence the Acala seed purchased for 
general planting in the Coachella Valley in 1921 was one year re- 
moved from rogued seed. 
In the Coachella Valley a 1-acre field was planted in 1920 with 
seed produced by the rogued San Joaquin Valley planting of 1919. 
This acre was also rogued and furnished seed for 90 acres planted in 
