The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-03-02
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS


 tion's dinner at the Tutwiier, finding myself elbowing a stranger, l learned | that he was from Arizona, and to my amazement he began to talk to me about cotton. When he began l thought he was carrying coals tc Newcastle, but before he quit he haa | told me a lot about the fleecy staple
 that was news to me.
 Now. I knew in a hazy kind or a way that an experiment was peing made in the desert to which water nad been. brought to raise cotton, but II seemed to me to be more of rad than anything else, but, believe me- US no ,, fancy, but a fact, that in Arizohs they are as keen about King Cotton as we were here in Alabama before the boil weevil came to teach us crop di- versification.
 had also read of the cotton grow ing enterprises in India, Egypt, Africa and the possibilities in Mesopotamla but the whole project was so far away as to seem almost unreal, and yet we know that year by year the south IS being cut in on by other markets, and so was all ears when c. T. Peabody of Chandler, Ariz, began to unfold his tale about what he and others had done and were doing in the way of producing cotton in the arid west.
 
 I asked him on his return home to send me some literature on the sub ject, and soon a letter came saying that he had sent me under separate cover lot of printed matter, some photo
 graphs, and seed from the Egyptian cotton for me to have tried out here in Alabama with the directions for planting, in the hope that out of it our cotton growers might get some new ideas nf what might be done by proper experimentation. But so far they have failed to reach me.
 j I do not know when I have spent more pleasant hour or two than l did in listening to the story of the advent of cotton into the Salt River valley. which is fed from the Roosevelt dam. I was pleased to learn that the va riety of cotton being so successfully cultivated in Arizona was in no way in competition with our ordinary va rieties grown here in the south.
 But I am just in receipt of the Ari- zona Republican. It's the annual cot
 ton edition, and to show that the staple is now commercial commod- ity of great value, one has only to look through the advertising sections, for bankers, merchants, manufacturers and all classes of business seem eager to get the attention of the cotton grow CTS. It took sixty-four pages of the independent and progressive journal published at Phoenix. Ariz.. to carry the matter contained in the special number, being a most creditable piece of journalism.
 It would be of great interest to the big cotton farmers in this state to at least have the section which is de- voted specially to the staple, which so long was the basis of our southern farm lands. It is set out in big head lines of box car type that the cotton crop is the cornerstone of the greater pfosperity enjoyed by the ranchsrs of Salt River valley. and that from the fact that approximately one hundred thousand acres of snowy white fields produced sco. 100000 for men who had faith in cotton.
 To be more exact. s7,0oo acres of cotton produced 10000 bales during the past season, and it took 2s5 gins stands turning out an average of 500 bales during the season. to handle the crop. The past season. however, was not as favorable for the production of Pima cotton as the previous one, but the high prices received by the plant CTS made the year a profitable one. The preceding crop of 3s.ooo bales brought to the growers about $12.- 100000. They are not talking of cut ting acreage in Arizona but are pre- uiCtiuS tudI Afotl 1SSsVvV so 4SvsvvS acres will be planted this year.
 With demand far in excess of the supply. 1t would seem that the growers. because there is . re- strictcd area in which the long staple | cotton can be successfully grown. are in a strong economic position. Some Of the crop I was informed was mar keted at S4 cents . pound. the paper states that the large buyers arc now offering to contract for the 1890 nut- put at minimum of 60 cents . pound The growers are banking also on tho decline in the Sea Island indls.rv. due | to the boil weevil; with | reduction of | the Egyptian crop. duo to the ravages of the pink boil worm. and 10 the ever demand In the industries for ! rima cotton.
 Tho gins worked to oApacity dur- lng the 191e-1o Gtnning soason. 3ho