Arizona republican., 1922-01-29

position clear: We do not advocate
or advise you to plant short staple
cotton alone, Pima cotton alone. or
some short staple and some Pima
cotton, but we wish to emphatically
state that If you plant some short
staple and some long staple 1t will
result eventually in a mixture Of the
two grades; hence, your Pima cotton,
and also the short staple cotton pro-
duced on account of being mixed,
would not be tenderable or saleable
as straight Pima and short staple
cotton, and, in most cases. would
have to be sold entirely on sample
and not on grade, as you are now
doing. This would be a very serious
handicap to the grower. for. due to
the mixture Of the two grades of cot
ton not being the same in all locali-
ties, the buyers would be very back>
ward about buying your cotton. even
on sample. as the cotton produced in
one locality would be somewhat diff
ferent from that produced in another,
and, for this reason, the buyers would
have no end OF trouble, as they would
have to buy five or six carloads in
order to obtain one carload of the
same quality, which would mean the
buyers would, at all times, have
stocks of unsold cotton on hand and
this cotton would be Of various
qualities.
The planting Of short staple alone
may be the correct thing to do. or
Pima cotton may be the proper cot
ton. This we will leave for you
to decide, but before deciding. or
making a change from your present
| grade of cotton, we suggest that you
make every possible investigation
| you can before doing so, for once
| you change from the Pima cotton to
the short staple cotton. the growing
of Pima cotton in this valley is a
thing of the past, and by so doing
you are changing the grade OF cot
| ton, which may not make the returns
nearly the equal obtainable from the
planting of Pima cotton. And above
all, the switching from the Pima to
the short staple means that all the
experimenting you and your friends
have done during the past years has
gone for nothing, and if the short
staple proves to be not the grade to
plant, after you have tried this seed
for a few years, the possibilities of
returning again to the Pima cotton
are very doubtful. Hence, ii might
not be anliss to suggest that you
know what you can do with the Pima
cotton business and should stick with
1t instead of taking chance by a
change.
The mixing OF short staple and
long staple in the same territory is
not a new thing, and If the farmers
of the Salt River valley would make
this mistake, they would only be
doing what has been done in other
portions of the country, especially in
Florida, but these mistakes were
made and have since been unable to
rectify.
What you want to do Mr. Farmer.
we firmly believe, is to get busy and
figure out why your costs of pro-
ducing Pima cotton have been so
high. You reduced these costs about
90 per cent during the 1922 sea-
son over that of 1920-21. so don't be
satisfied with what it costs you to-
day to plant this Pima, but en-
deavor to reduce these costs.
The Salt River valley is the only
place, as above stated, in the United
| States where a grade of cotton the
equal Of our present Pima cotton can
be grown, and you farmers have
spent years accomplishing what you
have: hence be careful-don't undo
all what you have done, but go ahead
with your Pima cotton. Knuclle
down and cut your expenses to the
limit, and we believe you will be sue
| cessfj.