The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1925-10-20
COTTON IS LIMITED
BY A CALIFORNIA LAW
ACT MAY BE STEP TOWARD
CONTROLLED PRODUCTION
OF FARM CROPS BY LAW.

California has come forward again
,,-+b something new in cooperative
.,orteting. Walton Peteet secretary
~ fine National Council of Farmers
ro-Operative Marketing Organiza-
4oos thinks this may be a decided
'+en toward controlled production of
farT crops by enactment of law, says
tGc Washington correspondence of the
baltimore Sun.
He has not expressed himself, how
AGAR a. either favoring or condemning
1e Man. and wants it distinctly I'M
der,tood that he had nothing to do
NTH placing it on the statute, books
The California legislature has en-
,cted law prohibiting the planting
or Ginning of any variety of cotton
oycent Aca1a in certain cotton-grow-
inc districts of the Imperial valley.
The mighty majesty of the law has
sonqht to do almost everything short
~ st9vng the winds of the heavens
and DENYING freedom to the waves OF
45e sea. but it is seldom that it has
had the temerity to tell the farmer
what crop he shall or shall not plant.
If seems, however, that this Califor-
MA law was urged by the farmers
themselves
Purposes of Law Cited.
The declared purposes of the law
are Ito promote, encourage, aid and
nro+ect the planting and growing of
cotton in the state of California; that
+ believes this purpose can best be
accomplished by restricting within
certain areas defined by the ac) the
planting and growing of but one va
rietv or species of cotton; that
nv this means alone it is possible to
hiring the cotton-growing industry in
the state to its highest possible devel-
op1nent and to insure the growing OF
the most superior and economically
most profitable variety or species OF
cotton; that the planting of pure
seed is essential to the production of
q more merchantable and better grade
ri cotton and cotton seed and for the
production of a grade of fiber best
suited for manufacturing purposes;
that the restriction of the use
+a which cotton lands may be used
is essential to the highest development
of the cotton growing industry and
of benefit even to one who would ylo-
late the provisions OF this act;
that solely by restricting the growing
al one variety or species OF cotton in
certain areas can the fiber be grown
oil Uniform length and quality and the
highest price paid for the cotton thus
obtained and the production Of fiber
OF different lengths and grades be pre-
vented"
All excellent agricultural doctrine,
no doubt Just the thing the agricul-
tural experiment stations recommend.
This also would solve automatically
the problem of standard grades. But
it is bit sudden to find all this done
by law rather than by slow, tedious
education and voluntary response.
Why Not Acreage?
If the kind of crop man may grow
is defined and limited by law why
not the acreage?
But most farm groups would be
unwilling to tie themselves up IN any
such hard and fast manner, it is be-
ieved. 1t might prove very embarrasS-
ing in the California case, for instance,
should a cotton variety better than
Acala be developed in competing
area across the line in Arizona.
Legal minds assert, offhand, that this
legislation is unconstitutional. The
test likely would come at planting
time next spring.