Arizona republican., 1921-11-24
Cotton and Patent Medicines Mr. O. F. Cook on the Danger of Mixing Cotton in
 This Valley

of our farmers, without taking the trouble to go to Sacaton to see the different varieties that are being compared. or even informing them selves regarding the results of such experiments, would discard our Pima cotton and pay high prices for any worthless seed that can be smuggled into the valley.
 Present Precautions
 Seed of the highest quality has been provided for growers Of Pima cotton in this valley through a spe- cial system of precautions in the growing and handling of the plant ing seed, more complete precautions than are taken elsewhere, so that it is impossible to get seed of equal purity from any other section But some farmers yield to street corner sug- gestions of bringing cotton seed from somewhere in the East, as though nc attention had been given to cotton in Arizona and no information were available regarding the behavior of | the different varieties.
 The cotton specialists of the de- partment of agriculture repeatedly have advised the holding to one va riety of cotton, as the only means of
 
 l full market recognition for a high quality product Such advice has been followed thus far in this valley, and with no cause for regret, if our results are compared with those of other cotton growing districts, but every year there are a few farmers mostly newcomers" in the valley who agitate the question of growing other kinds of cotton. The advocates | AI-A IL l tell us where cotton has been grown to better advantage, and more prog ress has been made among the farm CTS than in the Salt River valley, but no such region has been described to us. The temporary stagnation of the market since the war has affected all of the cotton growing regions in this country and abroad, and recovery is as certain for cotton as for any other
 industry.
 | It is natural that farmers who dc
 not raise good crops of Pima cotton should be susceptible to the idea that some other kind of cotton would be
 more profitable. Instead of discover. ing and rectifying their farming mis- takes, they listen to assurances thai some other cotton would grow better
 and yield more profitable crops, and
 are ready to believe this without ask ing for any evidence regarding ths alleged superiority of the new vari. ety. or learning how it behaves under Arizona conditions. Correcting mis-
 takes is not so pleasant or attractive as entertaining a new hope of an other kind of cotton that somebody has told us wonderful stories about. 1 Why Egyptian Cotton Is Better One of the chief reasons why tho Egyptian type of cotton is better adapted to the conditions of tn, Southwestern valleys is that more O | the bolls are retained and reach ma turity, while the Upland varieties ar, 1 more susceptible to blasting ant shedding, so that most of the bud and young bolls fall off in very ho | weather. Very large. yields may b secured from Upland cottons, If tn
 bolls are retained. but the shedding
 frequently is so great that the shor staple crop is less than the Egyp
 tian. There is nothing to show tha
 the average yields of Upland cottol
 would be larger, or even as large, a
 those that our more competent farm CTS are securing with Pima cotton, t
 say nothing of the higher marke value of Pima fiber. The experienc with Upland cotton in the Yuma
 Imperial, San Joaquin and other val leys does not give any basis for ad
 vising Upland cotton for the Sal
 River valley. Better farming is wha we should learn, to raise the averag
 yields of Pima cotton, instead c : turning aside to inferior varieties. Some of our farmers have brough
 from the East an idea that cotton va , rieties run out" in a few years an l, need to be replaced by fresh seed of some new kind of cotton, but thi , idea is a mistake. Ire supposed run ? ming out is a result of mixing differ !. ent varieties together. All of tn , most prominent and best varieties c cotton have been maintained in tn same places for long periods of year. as long as careful selection is prac ! ticed and mixing of seed is avoided ) ! Undoubtedly the Pima variety wi