Los Banos Rotary Club History
Sees Cotton As Low Cost Crop

Predicting that within the next few years cotton will become an almost mechanized field crop, Ray Provost, field manager of the Producers Cotton Oil Co., Fresno, Tuesday noon told members of the local Rotary Club that the future of cotton in the San Joaquin valley depends almost entirely on the ability to reduce cost of production.

Experiments conducted on a 320 acre plot this year conclusively proved that the labor cost of producing cotton in this area can be reduced from an average of 75 man-hours per acre to 20 man-hours per acre or even less. On this basis, San Joaquin valley cotton can profitably compete in any market in the world, despite the fact that in some foreign countries manual labor can be secured for only 15c to 25c per day.

Complete mechanization of cotton, Provost said, will crowd out marginal acreage that actually should not be in cotton anyway, but will again establish cotton as a major crop in this country, where some 13 million people are directly or indirectly employed in the cotton industry.

Explaining the method by which the per-acre cost of cotton can be reduced to less than a third of its present cost, Provost told of experiments conducted by his company the past year on a 320 acre plot. The primary reduction, he said, is made possible by perfection of a mechanical cotton picker that at today’s prices enables a savings in picking cots of $28 a bale.

Another substantial savings in production cost was enabled by use of a hill-drop a type of planter, which eliminates the necessity of thinning the cotton plants and reduces amount of seed required from 30 lb. to 10 lb. per acre. A new type of flame cultivator that sear and deadens weed and grass growth but does not harm the heavier-stemmed cotton plant eliminates the formerly expensive job of hand cultivation and weed chopping.

In connection with the cotton picker, Provost said that a special chemical dust is sprayed over the mature cotton field to defoliate the leaves and open the bolls. Action of this dust, however, requires moisture in the form of a heavy dew, which was non-existant in the valley fields this season. Consequently the picker was used with the leaves still on the cotton, which reduced its effectiveness from a possible 95 per cent to only about 85 per cent.
As to the financial future of cotton, Provost said that while prices this year are the highest in 26 years, he did not expect them to remain so. Cotton is a world crop, grown by some 52 countries, some of which utilize the cheapest of labor and consequently can successfully grow cotton at a fraction of present cost. At the same time there is a large reserve supply of some 20 million bales in the world, despite the fact that 1946 is the shortest cotton yield since 1920. competition from the synthetic industries will also force down present cotton prices. However, with full mechanization of America’s great cotton fields, Provost believes that the American farmer will still be able to grow the crop at a profit sufficient to guarantee the continuance of the United States as one of the major cotton producing countries of the world.

The speaker was introduced by program chairman R. Lindemann, and was one of several that are planned for the next several months dealing on basic agricultural problems of the community.

Football Dinner

Plans were announced at the luncheon for the annual high school football dinner, to be held the evening of December 12. Members of the Lions and 20-30 Clubs have been invited to attend this meetings-on a Dutchtreat basis. Members of the 1946 Tiger football team will be guests of honor.

November 26, 1946

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