Arizona republican., 1917-02-15

EARLY DISCOURACEMENTS
 OVERCOME AND ACREAGE
 THIS SPRING ENLARGED

1 passed, who aQe.SOou prO1llS. ana uiu not lose their faith in cotton.
 l These few who had proved that cot ton could be produced and sold for as ] low as IS cents per pound, and still show a profit, were the pioneers who kept the industry from discourage ment which would have meant disas- ! ter complete and absolute. The sue | cess of these men in the face of ad- verse circumstances, made possible i the planting of some 1000 acres in 1915. Indications in the spring of this 1 year were favorable that cotton would bring at least fair prices, and with 1 faith that such would be the case a | sufficient number of farmers planted ! as above stated some 4,000 acres, making it easily possible to increase l the acreage to over 1000 acres in : 1916
 i Of the 1000 acres planted in the | spring of 1916, probably 1000 acres were put in under adverse conditions, so that the crop was not what 1t should have been, consequently 1t IS hardly fair to consider the actual crop which was harvested under any thing like favorable conditions as being over 5000 acres. The yield as near as can be estimated with still some cotton to be ginned is 5000 | bales. making the average about one l half bale to the acre, or more than S100 to the acre gross returns.
 Gins and Marketing
 The first gin was built at Phoenix in 1912. This was the Arizona Egyp- tion Cotton Co. gin, MT. Herbert Atha, the pioneer cotton man of the north side, being president Follow i ing this the Mesa gin was built in 1913 and also the Chandler gin the same year. The following year the Tempe gin was built. With the building of the gins and producing the cotton, the farmers the first few years found that only half their bat ties had been won, for there was still the question ofa markets, and in . those first few years, there was much pioneer work neceSSaIy to - convince the mills of th east of the superior value of tn Arizona Variety of Eeyp- , tan cotton. At first one single man. ufacturer, one of the big thread com : panies as the only textile manufac- turer that seemed to be at all in terested in the American grown va } riety of the Egyptian long staple cot l ton. To introduce the Arizona va riety and acquaint the textile manu } lecturers of the east and Europe with it's superior quality, Mir w. $. Dor ? man of Mesa was sent east to study [ the situation in 1913. As d result of , his efforts buyers came to the Salt f River valley and began to take an interest i'll the cotton grown here. Later MT. Dorman went to Europe in the interests of the cotton growers but this was during the first months ! of the war and did not result in di- rect benefit, though it is probable that the work which he did on that occasion was not by any means lost, i. and has been productive of results far l beyond what could be seen.
 : In the fall of 1915 there were at l least three buyers competing for the l cotton of the valley. In 1916 still : more buyers were attracted to the 9 valley by the cotton, and the problem of marketing the crop is one which requires no more pioneer work for markets are assured for all time to | come.
 1 One of the most important uses of the long staple cotton, and a use which requires an unlimited amount, is for the fabric of automobile tires. One of the most active buyers this past sea son was the Goodyear Rub
 Der Co.,, and so highly do they value the long staple cotton for their tire fabrics that they have leased and purchased some 50000 acres of land which will be planted largely to cot
 ton in time For the coming season they will probably plant over 5000 acres Of the work which this com
 pany is doing more will be said later.
 The organization of the cotton
 growers is complete. and practically every grower is a member of his nearest local. Local associations have been formed at Mesa, Tempe, Chand- Ter. Gilbert Phoenix, Tolleson and Glendale. Each local association sends one or more delegates to the central or county association, the headquarters of which are at Tempe. Chas. Warehouse of Tempe is preSi-
 dent of the county association, and
 ". H. Knox of Phoenix is secretary. A conservative estimate of the acre age this season. is 25,000 acres. New gins will be built at Glendale, Gilbert and quite likely at Phoenix and Tol-
 leSon
 Developing the Long Staple Cotton
 The experimental work with the
 Yuma variety of cotton begun at
 Yuma and transferred 10 Sacaton in
 1907 has been continued without any
 relaxation of the efforts to produce
 the best loGg staple cotton the world
 has ever known. The early expert
 mental work was supervised and di-
 rected by Messrs. Thos. H. Carney.
 O. F. Cook. w. T. Swingle, C. S..
 Scofield, and later Chas. J. Brand.
 now of tine bureau of markets, all Of
 whom were officials of the United
 States department of agriculture. The
 actual work of carrying on the ex-
 periments, and the constant super
 vision of the preparation of the land,
 planting, irrigating, cultivating and
 harvesting, has been done by MT. l..
 w. Hudson to whom the Egyptian
 cotton industry is more indebted for
 its success today than to any other
 man. In the years of growing and
 developing cotton at Sacaton, Mr.
 Hudson acquired a knowledge of the
 needs of the plant, and methods of
 handling through all it's various
 stages which is worth untold thous-
 ands of dollars to the people of the
 Salt River valley. He is the author
 of Farmers Bulletin No. 577, Crow
 ing Egyptian Cotton in the Salt River
 Valley which is an acknowledged
 authority on the best methods of 1 growing this NarietN of cnftnn Iner