26 
In 1922 it had proved rather difficult to get all the rogued cotton 
to the gin at one time without holding up the regular ginning. The 
rogued ginnings were not very frequent, and growers who had a con- 
siderable acreage of rogued cotton found it difficult to hold the seed 
cotton over for the rogued days without piling it on the ground. 
If the grower could not gin, the only way to avoid piling the cotton 
on the ground was to let the pickers go until after he had been able 
to gin, and it frequently proved difficult to get pickers again. 
To overcome these difficulties a house for storing the rogued seed 
cotton was erected at the gin. This house was divided into several 
bins and one bin assigned to each grower. The grower could then 
bring his rogued cotton to the gin at any time and unload it into his 
bin. When 10 or 15 bales had accumulated, arrangements were made 
for ginning. The rogued cotton was usually ginned at night to 
avoid holding up the regular ginning. The gin machinery was 
thoroughly cleaned, a suction pipe was laid out to the bins, and 
the rogued cotton was run through, each grower's cotton being kept 
separate. The seed was caught on the floor in front of the gin 
stands and sacked as ginned. The sacks were labeled and hauled 
to safe storage. In 1923 the new-stock cotton was always run before 
the original-stock cotton in order to prevent the original-stock seed 
from being mixed with the new-stock seed. 
Another breeding block was grown at the United States Experi- 
ment Date Garden near Indio in 1923. The block was enlarged to 
iy 2 acres in order to produce seed for planting a larger acreage for 
roguing in 1924. The block consisted only of progeny rows and one 
increase progeny selected from the new-stock breeding block of 1922. 
The gin machinery was thoroughly cleaned before the cotton from 
the breeding block was ginned. The seed was caught on the floor 
in front of the gin stands, sacked as ginned, and hauled back to 
the date garden for storage. A good supply of seed was obtained, 
since the block yielded about 2 bales to the acre. 
PROTECTION OF THE COACHELLA VALLEY ACALA INDUSTRY BY 
A COUNTY ORDINANCE 
In 1923 the Coachella Valley reached the point where practically 
all the valley cotton acreage consisted of Acala. Breeding work was 
being carried on to improve the seed stock, and the gins were co- 
operating to the extent of refusing to gin cotton of any other variety. 
It was felt, however, that the community needed some sort of pro- 
tection from newcomers who might not understand the valley situa- 
tion, from the small reactionary element who could not understand 
the advantages of one-variety production, and from those who might 
maliciously plant some other variety. 
This matter was taken up with the Riverside County horticultural 
commissioner (A. E. Bottel) and with the county board of super- 
visors. These officials quickly recognized the improvements and 
value of the community organization, and on January 28, 1924, 
the county board of supervisors passed an ordinance designed to 
protect the Acala cotton industry of the Coachella Valley. 
The ordinance defined and established pure-seed districts in the 
county and prohibited the planting, transportation, or possession 
of impure seeds in such districts. The county horticultural com- 
