2 BULLETIN 742, U. S.. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
is best adapted to the physical and economic conditions of the local- 
ity.1 In no other way is it possible to maintain a supply of pure | 
seed and to market year after year a uniform high-grade product. 
These objects can be attained only by effective cooperation on the 
part of the growers. The lesson taught by this successful applica- 
tion of the community principle should make the present publication | 
interesting to many who are engaged in growing, selling, or manu- 
facturing cotton, even though they may not he concerned with the 
special subject of Egyptian-cotton production. 
SOURCES OF LONG-STAPLE COTTON. 
The three most important types of long-staple cotton are (1) Sea | 
Island cotton, (2) long-staple Upland cotton, and (3) Egyptian 
cotton. | 
Sea Island cotton is grown on the islands along the coasts of South | 
Carolina and Georgia and in certain counties on the mainland of 
Georgia and Florida, as well as to a limited extent in portions of | 
the West Indies. During recent years the crop of Sea Island cot- | 
ton in the United States has ranged from 60,000 to 120,000 bales ? per 
annum. The staple of Sea Island cotton ranges from 14 to 12 inches | 
in the Georgia and Florida product to 2 inches in the best qualities | 
grown on the Sea Islands proper.? 
Long-staple Upland cotton has long been produced chiefly in the 
so-called Delta region of western Mississippi. In recent years the 
production of this type of cotton has been extended into eastern 
Arkansas and northeastern Texas, and a small quantity has also been 
grown in’ the Carolinas. Still more recently the growing of long- 
staple Upland cotton has been established on irrigated lands in the 
Imperial Valley of California, the industry in that locality being © 
based on the Durango variety. The quantity of long-staple Upland 
cotton produced annually in the United States is not definitely known. 
A recent publication of the Bureau of Crop Estimates * places the 
total for 1916 at slightly more than 1,000,000 bales of cotton having 
a staple of 14 inches or longer. While a few varieties of long-staple 
Upland cotton sometimes produce fiber having a staple of 14 inches 
or longer, the bulk of the crop is less than 12 inches in length. 
1Cook, O. F. Cotton improvement on a community basis, In U. S. Dept. Agr. Year- 
book, 1911, p. 897-410, 1912. See also Swingle, W. T., The fundamentals of crop improve- 
ment, in U. S. Dept. Agr., Bur. Plant Indus. Cir. 116, pp. 3-10, 1913. 
2The Sea Island cotton bale averages in weight slightly less than 400 pounds. For 
further information, see Meadows, W. R., Economic conditions in the Sea Island cotton 
industry, U. S. Dept. Agr. Bul. 146, 18 p., 1914. 
3A small proportion of the island product reaches a lengih of 24 and rarely even 24 
inches. . zh 
Monthly Crop Report for June, 1917, p. 52. See also Taylor, Fred, and Sherman, 
W. A., Spinning tests of Upland long-staple cottons, U. S. Dept. Agr. Bul. 121, 1914, p. 19. 
