Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-12-23

W. ASHINGTON, ID. c., Dec. 17.--Per-
/ w haps the most striking triumph ever
achieved by science as applied to farm
ing is now being celebrated in the Salt River
valley in Arizona. The farmers are doing the
celebrating. They can afford to celebrate be-
cause they are getting for their cotton the al
most fabulous price Of eighty-hve cents a
pound
Cotton at this price is the new Ell Dorado of
the west, and fertile vineyards, orange groves
and alfalfa fields are being uprOoted that the
new crop may be given all opportunity to en-
rich the holders of these once desert lands,
now made productive y legislation. Farmers
have repeatedly made ten thousand dollars a
year on a ffty-acre field given over to this
grade of cotton.
Its cultivation, as an example of the appli-
cation OF science to the tilling of the SOIL is
probably without an equal in the success with
which it has been carried out, and in the
promise OF a permanent industry which it
offers.
The ultimate product is cord tires for
American automobiles and sewing cotton for
the needles of American housewives For
the cotton grown in Arizona is the best cotton
III the world and these are the two important
ProouctS "hlch call for great strength and
durability
Here is an industry which has resulted
from taking thought, and from pursuing one
purpose unwaveringly for two decades Twen
ty years ago the Department of ,AgricuItura
Iound down IN Egypt, grade of cotton that
orought better prices on the market than did
any other cotton, with the possible execution
OF Sea Island cotton, of which lmitad
amounts were grown in South Carolina. Geor-
gia and Florida
The price of cotton is governed, other
thlngs being equal, by its length of staple
Inc longer the fiber of the cotton the more
valuable it is on the market. Sea Island cot
ton IS variety developed on the islands of
the South Carolina coast, and now grown
more extensively in certain counties of Geor
gla and Florida. There are certain difficult
ties in the way of raising it, however, and it's
cultivation does not spread. 1t requires long
growing season, is difficult to pick and deteri-
crates year by year. The south is prejudced
against it. The exactions Of its cultivation
are too great.
Egypt had the rival long staple cotton.
Egypt had been more successful in keeping
it's strain pure. In Egypt the conditions were
more favorable to the cultivation of distinct
varieties. The mass of the long staple cot
ton of the world had come to De grown in
Egypt. The United States, the greatest of
cotton-raising countries, had allowed itself to
be outstripped in growing this thread cotton,
Agricultural explorers were sent to Egypt
and brought home quantities of the seed Of
the choice long staple varieties. These were
distributed through the cotton regions of the
south. They did not do well. They had been
the irrigation of Egypt. They required a
longer growing season than that of the south
eTn States
The representatives of the Department of
Agriculture turned their attention to the fal
southwest, where conditions more nearly ap-
proXimated those of Egypt. Arizona had the
dry air, the long growing season, the irriga-
ton. Would Egyptian cotton grow there?
Would it be sufficiently profitable to dis
place those alfalfa fields which yielded six
crops of hay per year and from one to two
tons per crop? Only experiment would show.
The best Egyptian cotton was taken to
Yuma, Arizona, and there propagated The
yield was ragged and unlike that on the
Nile. The stranger deported itself peculiarly
in it's new home.
There were isolated plants which were sat
isfactory. The scientific farmers selected
these plants and propagated them. In the
subsequent crop greater number of the
plants were satisfactory. Those with salts
factory yields and staple were again selected
and propa gated. After ten years of this sort
OF se1ective growing, a distinctive variety OF