Daily Arizona silver belt., 1907-10-19
EXPERIMENTS LEAD TO THE BE. LIEF THAT ARIZONA WILL
 EXCEL THE SOUTH
IT IS THOUGHT THAT TWO CROPS A YEAR CAN BE GROWN HERE
 WITHOUT TROUBLE
Three Hundred Acres Are to Be Planted by the Buckeye Ranchers Next Spring and It Is Believed It Will Become the Crop of the County.

BUCKEE, AriZ., October ls.-The farmers of the Buckeye country are ex- cited over the possibilities in cotton and over three hundred acres of that staple will be planted in that valley next spring.
 Two farmers, Nels Benson and T. J. Roberts, have been experimenting with cotton this season and are more than enthusiastic over the result realized from the small patches which they planted. MT. Roberts, who was for merly farmer in Alabama, where cot. ton is the chief crop, is firmly of the opinion that Arizona is far ahead of the south as a cotton growing country and that the fiber will soon be one of the main products of the territory.
 The experiments and success of Messrs. Benson and Roberts have had the effect of greatly interesting the other farmers of the valley, and num- Der have agreed to plant fields of cot ton ranging from one to ten acres next year.
 Dr. l.. H. Thayer, who has been in Phoenix for several days on a business trip, states that there is not doubt in the minds of anyone that cotton will in few years be the principal crop of the Buckeye valley. The specimens which the experimenters have grown are large and fine and the fiber is quite long.
 In ha .I, ing time is during the months of March and April. The Buckeye farmers for the most part will plant at about this time. but some of the seed will be put into the ground earlier. 1t is believed that, like nearly everything else, cot ton can be planted here month or two earlier than in the east and south. If the earlier planted fields do as well as those put in at the regular time the next year. all the crop, which it is hoped will be much larger, will be plant. ed earlier. It is thought that two crops a year can be matured without any trouble.
 Steps have already been taken for the installation of a gin at Buckeye. For this purpose company will probably be formed. This movement, however, is as yet in its infancy, though there is a determination on the part of the farm CTS to have gin if the cotton turns out half so we'll as they believe it will. The cost of machinery, etc, is being investigated.
 MT. Roberts judged from the results attained from his experimental crop that two bales per acre can easily be produced. When two crops year are raised this will be four bales to the acre, while in the southern states no one dreams of more than one bale per acre, and it is only possible to produce one crop year.
 It has often been said by various persons that if Arizona farmers raise cotton they will have to import a few carloads of southern negroes to pick it, but the Buckeye ranchers believe they will have no difficulty over the labor problem. There are many Mexieans in that section who it is expected will be more than glad to make money by pick ing cotton. The wives and children of the Mexican farm laborers, who are idle during the daytime, will alone be able to take care of the entire crop. In this way cotton will be Godsend to them by enabling them to make more omney.