Arizona republican., 1910-03-28
THE GROWTH IF COTTON Letter On This Subject From An Expert
 VALLEY 4 PROMISING FIELD Writes w. H, Gilbert For
 merly Secretary of Nat
 ional Exchange Some of
 the Advantages Possessed
 By This Region
VALLEY 4 PROMISING FIELD

W. II. Gilbert. who is a resident of Mesa. coming here from the south | has Tn letter to The Republican. 1 taken up the question of cotton growing and given some logical argu- ment showing why this well known 1 product can be grown very profita- | ply m the Salt River valley Mr Gllherrt. was secretary of the National Cotton Exchange for q term as well as occupying the position ! of manager of the press bureau for the Southern Cotton association for one year and for one year was man aging editor of the Cotton Journal a i trade paper devoted exclusively to the cotton industry.
 It is a well known fact that the growing of cotton in the valley has been conducted in more pr less de sultory manner for the past few years. One of the primary obstacles which it is claimed must be overcome iS the high priCee of labor Mir. Gilbert explains this proposition quite fully. Tho long staple cotton. which 1t K considered is the variety especially adapted to this valley, is also con sidered in the letter.
 The letter follows:
 Mesa, Ariz.. March 26. 1910 Editor Republican:
 Cotton has been called the soutI's gold mine. and indeed, it represents not only to the southern states of America. but to the world at large. more intrinsic value than all the gold mines combined. The cultivation, handling and manufacturing of cotton gives employment to more people than any other known plant. with the possible exception of wheat. Yet the growing of cotton, owing to eli matic and soil conditions. is restrict ed tu a very limited area of the earth's surface: while wheat can be raised wherever the sun shines and the rain falls. To such limited area is the growth of cotton con fined that to millions of people. who daily use it's products in various ways. q growing stalk of the fleecy staple k as much d curiosity as would he a cocoa palm or a banyan tree, yet this plant furnishes practically all the clothing for half the world ana is more or less contained in the raj ment of the other half.
 No civilized country or people to- day but are daily becoming more and more the subjects of King Cotton, which has caused it to be called, along with the Bible, the worlds greatest civilzer Give the savage Bible and he immediately wants few wards of cotton cloth. IT the Bible makes him Christian, it is his cotton clothing that makes him man. Without cotton it is d safe calculation that the world would be several decades behind what it is to- day. in both progress and civilization.
 Cotton is used in so many ways, not only by the tailors and clOthiers but in the various mechanical arts, that it is but small stretch of the ina agination to aSCribe to 1t magical powers for doing good to mankind, while at the same time it is confined to such a limited areea in it's growth as to resemble special dispcnsation of Providence in favor of those coun- tries who are able to produce me dium length staple.
 IL has been said that the southern part of the United States was the Garden of Eden. or the chosen land of God. because of the gift of this won derful plant. for out of the total worlds supply. or annaui crop or from 1s,OOO.OO0 to 20.O00.000 bales of all grades of cotton. the United States produces about three-fourths or from II. .000.00 to 13.000,00O bales. nearly all of which. if well handled, would be superior to any of the short staple cotton grown in any other part of the world. To wrench this monop- oly of the cotton business from the United States has been for years the dream of Great Britain and the other cloth manufacturing countries. but to no avail. as there is at the present time no known area, of any extent, outside of the southern states of Am erica, where the climatic conditions