Los Angeles herald., 1910-02-20

congratulated upon the achieve
l. ment of the Imperial valley cot
ton growers in making such a financi Il
success of their first comnercial crop
of cotton. Not since the discovery o.
oil has there been an event which
promises so much for the industrial de-
velopment of Southern California.
For some years desultory expert
ments have been made with the grow
ing of a few plants of cotton here and
there. but it was not until the past
year, 1909, that it was tried CONNER
cially. Early in the year Joseph X.
LOTUS, president of the American Nile
Cotton company, brought from the
south a carload of cotton seed of the
Mebane Triumph variety, and some o
the Sims Improved from Georgia. This
was distributed to about forty ranch
ers of the valley under a gu ulrantee
that their crop would be gimme If 1t
proved successful. Some who app led
for seed became discouraged by the
pessimistic talk of friends and fed the
seed to cattle instead of planting. Some
others planted the seed, but neglected
it after it had sprouted, al owing 1t
to go without irrigation while they
turned their attention to cantoloupeS.
But those who attended to their cotton
crop to the best of their ability had
ample reward for their pains. The re-
suit reached the expectations of the
most sanguine. The crop was prac-
tically an experiment. The growers Ga
not know the best time fl r planting n
the best times for irrigating nor the
proper amount of water to use and yet
without this knowledge they harvested
from one bale to a bale and half per
acre. The stalks grew from three to
four feet high. carried from 100 TO lou
bolls and produced a be1ut full snow
white silky fiber.
The planting was done about the
first of May, and the growing crop was
irrigated four or five times during the
season. The picking was begun IN
September. The machinery for gin
was not ordered until about Septem-
ber l, as it was necessary to be assured
of crop before going to that expense,
but contracts were let and the ma
chinery got in place, electric power
was obtained and a plant consisting
of two 70-saw gins started on October
1S at Ell Centre. This was followed
by a notable demonstration at the
opera house in that city, where enthu-
sasm took the place of soicitude. The
first cotton picked in the valley was
brought in by w. A. McClannahan
from the Whsle ranch. This was made
into a bale and purchased by Mr.
Fuller, and is being kept as per
manent exhibit IN the I'll CeHtrO Ma
tional bank. The first cotton to ac-
tually go through the gin was from
the Joseph r. Lotus Co.'S Meloland
ranch and the bale made from this
cotton forms a part of the Imperial
valley exhibit in the chamber of com
merce at Los Angeles, The first car
load of cotton was purchased by the
California cotton mills at Oakland and
made up into various kinds of towels
tah1a11nthC zach niapn hpinp
stamped Manufactured from the first
cotton grown in Imperial valley, crop
19O9" and were placed on sale in Los
Angeles on January 2, 1910. There
were about 600 bales of 500 pounds
each actually ginned and marketed.
and the manufacturers to whom sam
pies were sent early in the season were
not slow in making bids for the entire
crop.
cf this nnttnr iS