UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
BULLETIN NO. 1184 
Washington, D. C. 
November, 1923 
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UTILIZATION OF PIMA COTTON. 
By Horace H. Willis, Cotton specialist, Office of Crop Acclimatization and 
Adaptation Investigations, Bureau of Plant Industry, in cooperation with the 
Bureau of Agricultural Economics. 
CONTENTS. 
Page. 
Introduction 1 
- - and manufacturing- qualiti - 
Pima cotton 4 
Objection^ current among- manufac- 
turers 
Conditions causing lack of uni- 
formity * 10 
Need of field segregation 11 
Clean uniforr- staple advantageous 
to manufacturers and growers 12 
Page. 
Better methods of ginning 14 
Sampling of bales 16 
Compressing 17 
Storage of baled cotton 22 
Place of Pima cotton in the long- 
staple markets 22 
Improvements for the stabilization 
of Pima cotton 23 
< lonclusions 24 
Literature cited 26 
INTRODUCTION. 
In establishing the production of the Egyptian type of cotton in 
Arizona many problems have been met. including the development 
of a special variety called Pima, which is better adapted to the 
Arizona and California conditions than any of the imported Egyp- 
tian varieties. This new type of cotton was at firsl used almost 
exclusively in the manufacture of tire fabrics, but during the recent 
business depression the tire trade was greatly restricted, and Pima 
cotton could not be sold at remunerative prices. These conditions 
were largely responsible for the recognition of the need of a more 
general study of the textile qualities of this class of cotton, to de- 
termine its adaptability to more general use in the fine-goods trade. 
The general result of this study is to show from actual data and 
experience of manufacturers that the Pima cotton can be used to 
advantage and is actually being used for many purposes of fine 
spinning and that the chief obstacle to more general use is the lack 
of assurance to the manufacturers thai sufficient quantities of uni- 
form fiber can be obtained. 
A rapid increase of production followed the first commercial plant- 
ing of -1~:> acres of this variety in the Salt River Valley of Arizona 
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