Imperial Valley press., 1909-11-06
Growers Discuss Price With Representatives From
 Oakland Mills
Texas Concern Offers to Put up oil Mill When Valley Product Amounts to Forty Thousand Bales-Advan- taaes of Using Seed For Cattle Ra- tion Shown by Tests.

The first carload of cotton goes out from El Centro to Oakland today. It contains AZ bales, of which 8 were produced by w. D. Wilsie, 3 by Nc Clanahan, by w. M. Brown, by T. G. Thompson and the rest by Lof4 tus at Meloland Loftus sold in ad vance for 12 cents; all the others received IS. The car bears two long streamer signs telling that the car contains the first load of cotton gin ned by the American Nile Cotton Go. at El Centro.
 A meeting of the cotton growers of the valley was held yesterday in the opera house. J. R. Loftus presiding. w. E. Wilsie was elected vice-presi- dent The growers. discussed prices with Mr. Millar and M. Chappell of the Oakland mills, who are paying 13 cents for cotton in Ell Centro and as- suring the growers that it Is a fair price. A telegram from Austin giv- ing the price of middling at IA IA cents was read, and the growers ar gued that because of the lower freight rate from Fl Centro to Oakland the price here f. o. b. should be higher. MT. Millar explained that the mills do not pay the freight from Texas and are getting cotton at II to 13 IA cents. The mills at Oakland make rope and twine and do not use much high grade cotton. MT. Wilsie sug gested that the growers do not want a flair" price but want just what their cotton is worth, and MT. LOftus said he was confident that the grow CTS should get IA cents. It was agreed by all the experts present that val ley cotton grades middling or bet ter.
 Discussion of the labor situation de- veloped the fact that there is no ur- gent demand for more pickers at pres ont, although MT. Loftus said he could employ eight or ten more to advan- tag2. Los Angeles agents offer to furnish 50 experienced pickers if growers will advance railroad fare.
 Several farmers said they were ex- perimenting with seed as ration for dairy cows with very satisfactory re- suits in increased butter product. It was the general opinion that it would be better to use seed here than to sell it to Texas oil mills at the price offered.
 Secretary Srack reported that he had learned that Los Angeles uses 300 carloads of cotton seed oil annually, for which a million dollars is paid. Mill men in Texas offer to put up a mill in the valley when assured of supply, of seed from crop of 40,- 900 bales. mill would cost about $6O,000 and it would require a capi- tai of $25O;OOO to run it. But the mill men want to get seed at $10 a ton, which does not look good to the growers.
 MT. Loftus urged all the growers to keep accurate accounts of their crops and to make full reports to the association The information, he said, would be of the greatest value.
 M. F. McLauren, a cotton broker of Los Angeles, told the growers that the valley had started something a great deal bigger than they thought and that the cotton grown here is much better than the average.
 The meeting adjourned to meet at call before December 1, and it was left to the growers to make their own terms with buyers in the meantime.
 There are about 1000 acres of cot ton in the valley at the present time, and there is no doubt but what each separate field differs somewhat in the cost of production, but an average has been obtained by careful comparison by MT. Hickman, of the American Nile Cotton Company, and the fol- lowing table has been furnished by him:
 Flowing ground. per acre, $1,6O; seed, per acre. $50; ridging and fur rowing, per acre. sl.OO; planting $75; cultivating three times, SIPS; irrlga- tion, $500; picking lon basis of one bale per acre) s15,OO; delivering to gin, $20O; ginning, $500; total cost