PRODUCTION OF AMERICAN EGYPTIAN COTTON. 18 
Yield tests and spinning tests of the Yuma cotton carried on 
during several years démonstrated that a stable variety, uniform in 
its characters and producing fiber of good spinning quality, had at 
last been obtained. Seed was therefore placed in the hands of 
farmers in the Salt River and Imperial Valleys in 1912, with the 
results described on preceding pages. 
From the Yuma variety there has originated another very distinct 
new type, which has received the name “ Pima” and which surpasses | 
the parent variety in earliness, size of the bolls, and. length and qual- 
ity of the fiber. The staple of the Pima variety ranges from 13 to 13 
inches and the fiber is lighter colored than that of the Yuma variety. 
In cooperation with the Tempe Exchange, one of the cooperative 
growers’ associations in the Salt River Valley, Pima seed was dis- 
tributed from the Sacaton station in 1916 for planting 252: acres in 
an area isolated from all other cotton. These fields yielded at the 
rate of 1 bale per acre, 251 bales of 500 pounds having been produced. 
The Pima cotton having found immediate favor with spinners, the 
resulting seed was used in 1917 to plant 6,700 acres in the same dis- 
trict, which produced approximately 3,000 bales. Nearly 95 per cent 
of the cotton acreage in the Salt River Valley and the entire acre- 
ages of Egyptian cotton in the Yuma and Imperial Valleys are now 
(1918) of the Pima variety. 
SOLVING THE PROBLEMS OF COMMERCIAL PRODUCTION. 
As the work of establishing the new industry progressed it became 
apparent that the economic and agricultural problems could best be 
met by enlisting the cooperation of several men representing differ- 
ent lines of experimental work in the Department of Agriculture, 
each of whom was able to contribute special knowledge and experi- 
ence. The cooperation was at first informal, but later, as the re-, 
sponsibilities increased, it was thought advisable to create a special 
committee to carry on this work. A “Committee on Southwestern 
Cotton Culture” was therefore appointed in 1910 by the Chief of the 
Bureau of Plant Industry.t 
1 The personnel of the committee is now as follows: 
K. F. Kellerman, Associate Chief of the Bureau of Plant Industry, is chairmam of the 
committee. 
C. J. Brand, Chief of the Bureau of Markets, has charge of the investigations ins class- 
ing, marketing, and transportation. 
O. F. Cook, Bionomist in Charge of Crop-Acclimatization and Cotton-Breeding Investi- 
gations, conducts investigations of the factors involved in the acclimatization of different 
types of cotton in the Southwest and of the relation of these factors to cultural methods. 
He has also taken the lead in developing the idea of community cotton growing as a 
means to the maintenance of uniform varieties. 
T. H. Kearney, Physiologist in Charge of Alkali and Drought Resistant Plant Investiga- 
tions, has charge of the breeding work with Egyptian cotton and of the investigations. of 
the effect of alkali and other soil conditions upon the production of this crop. 
C. S. Scofield, Agriculturist in Charge of Western Irrigation Agriculture, has charge 
of those phases of the work which involve cooperation with the United States Reclama- 
