ACAJLA COTTON IN CALIFORNIA 23 
The data showing the amount of contamination from other varie- 
ties in 1923 are given in Table 2 (p. 41) in comparison with similar 
data for other years. 
GINNING IN 1923 
Of the 3,641 acres of cotton grown in the Coachella Valley in 
1923, 3,519 acres, or 96.G per cent, consisted of Acala, leaving only 
122 acres devoted to other varieties. Since such a small part of the 
valley cotton acreage was planted with varieties other than Acala, 
both of the valley gins agreed to restrict their ginning to Acala 
and to continue this policy in the future. This action by the ginners 
eliminated from the valley the greatest cause of varietal mixture and 
also had the effect of making it more inconvenient to grow other 
varieties. This policy was adopted at the suggestion of the associa- 
tion because it was now apparent that the local sentiment was over- 
whelmingly in favor of Acala and of growing only one variety. 
Under these conditions it was to the best interest of the valley, and 
therefore to the best interest of the gins, for the valley to become a 
100 per cent Acala communitj^. 
The ginners regard themselves very much in the light of a public 
utility and do not like to refuse to gin anyone's cotton, particularly 
if their competitors will gin it. Consequently, unless a gin draws 
on one area alone for its customers and this area is entirely in one 
variety, it is very important to make the same arrangements at all 
gins in the community. If they are not all included in such an 
arrangement, the competition between varieties will become identi- 
fied with the competition between gins and will delay the attain- 
ment of a one-variety community. 
In the Coachella Valley it was not practicable before 1923 for the 
ginning to be restricted to Acala, since prior to that year Acala had 
not constituted more than 85.1 per cent of the valley acreage. The 
nearest gin outside the Coachella Valley is in the Imperial Valley, 
a distance of about 70 miles. Shipping as much as 15 per cent of 
the valley cotton that distance for ginning would have been im- 
practicable and would have resulted in a considerable loss to the 
local gins. 
In 1923, however, the situation was very different, since only 3.4 
per cent of the valley acreage consisted of varieties other than 
Acala and only a few. reactionary growers would be affected. The 
gins were furnished with the names of those who grew other varie- 
ties, and they notified these growers that their cotton would not be 
ginned locally. Transportation was provided by the owner of one of 
the gins, and all seed cotton from the Durango and Mebane fields 
was hauled by motor truck to the Imperial Valley for ginning. 
Since these growers were definitely known and their acreage was 
small, the situation could be successfully handled; but to keep away 
from the local gins a large percentage of the cotton would have 
been much more difficult. 
Though the greatest cause of varietal mixture had been eliminated, 
the necessity for cleaning the gin machinery was not entirely obvi- 
ated. „ There were 404 acres of Acala grown on land previously in 
another variety, 195 acres of Acala were not isolated from the fields 
of other varieties, and the gin machinery had to be cleaned when- 
