Imperial Valley press., 1916-03-25

buyer, the user, the manufacturer. He
is the fellow who knows quality in cot
ton and who is willing to pay the best
price for it. We must concentrate
our guns on him. Our talk Of "lon-
gest, strongest, whitest," premium,
"first bale ginned," etc, may possibly
attract this mans attention and if it
does it has served it's purpose; but
when it comes to judging the true
value of cotton this sort of talk does
not fool him a bit. He knows more
about cotton than we do after it gets
to the marketing stage, that is, in the
bale. He knows what makes cotton
spin him extra yards Of yarn at min
imum cost, in other words what makes
cotton valuable to him. We know
more about cotton up to the bale, but
we are short-sighted if we do not
learn more about it by getting the
users point of view as to what makes
it bring US the most money because of
it's value to him. 1t is clear to me
that we shall make progress in our
cotton industry in direct proportion
to the extent that we keep in mind
that we are growing cotton for sale
and that certain qualities that we can
put into the cotton make it most
salable. Until we acquire that point
Of view we shall not know enough
about raising cotton. We raise cotton
for sale, but we are in the habit Of
raising it for whatever it will bring
when it is ready for market, not in a
manner to make it bring the highest
possible price. We begin to think Sc
riously of marketing after our cotton
is in the bale. l want to impress you
with the Importance of making mar
keting a goal toward which all our
operations are constructively and def
nitely directed. Let me draw you a
composite picture of the valley cot
ton industry to make what l mean
clearer to you.
John Doe is this year putting in
100 acres of cotton. "Even as you and
l." he has already figured on what he
will get for it next fall. This is one
of our pleasant day dreams from
planting time to harvest. We will call
the cotton he is planting Durbane and
maintain the average between Duran
go and Mebane throughout the picture
in order to fit all cases. This is John
Does dream: 100 bales Of cotton at
IA cents per pound is $1,000, besides
$3.50 for the seed. His rent will cost
him $1,000, water $175, other costs of
production $1,000; picking $1,000 and
ginning $3.50, a total Of $4,225. So
that he readily arrives at the conclu-
sion that he will set $3,525. Not bad,
is it? But as usual with most of us,
this dream Of Does is of an air cas-
tie without definite plans and speci-
fications for the construction. This
being the case, Doe has already made
two mistakes which will render it i'm
possible for him to realize his dream
He is re-cropping land he has had in
cotton three seasons and he has pre-
pared the land by single listing. The
seed he intends to plant is not pure
Durbane, but a stock he has been
growing for couple of years without
special precautions to keep It pure
He does not yet realize the basic i'm
portance of pure seed. He does, how
ever, understand the importance of
light irrigating previous to Towering
time and Of irrigating to keep the
plants growing we'll after Towering be-
gins. But because of his early mis-
takes in choice and preparation of
land he will make but rs bales. His
seed being mixed, his cotton will be
uneven in length. The first of his
crop he will pick fairly clean to make
strict middling grades; the latter part
to make strict low middling. Not real
izing the necessity for careful ginning
he does not insist on it and his 75
bales are somewhat gin damaged
While he gets fair prices for his bet,
ter grades, the lower grades and the
general unevenness of the fiber make
his average returns 11.50 cents pei
pound. His crop brings him $4,874.5(
and his expenses are $3,712.5O, so that
his net is $1,162, a waste of $2,363
This represents real waste, too, be
cause his dream of last fall was o.
an outcome quite within the realm o1
possibility. This is not altogether ,
fanciful picture. 1t is what has hap
pened and is happening in the Impe
rial Valley. Because of our failur,
to make use of the advantages W
have we are wasting thousands of dol
lars annually, to put it mildly. Wha
are we going to do about it?
To ro+,,r,, to tho MON who huva q ~