136 WESTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRATION

quires a long growing season and a well-regulated supply of moisture.
In this section the temperature is very high and white men are very
loath to engage in field labor, and it is our experience that we have had
to rely solely upon Mexican agricultural labor and have found it the
most satisfactory.
The operation of irrigating this cotton that grows very tall and cuts
off any movement of air, is especially trying, and is at its peak during
the hottest months.
We have two peak demands for labor, the first and lesser one being
in May and June, when the cotton plants are chopped or spaced to
the proper distance apart; and the other is for picking the crop, which
starts usually in September and ends when the harvest is completed,
this latter depending upon the supply of labor. The cotton is usually
all open and ready to be picked in December. Of course this varies
from year to year with the season. Records from the Bureau of Agricultural
 Economics, Crop Reports Revision, United States Department
 of Agriculture, show that for the past eight years 35 per cent of
the Arizona crop has been harvested after December 1, and 12 per
cent after January 15.
This is due entirely to a shortage of labor and a great loss is sustained
both by cotton falling to the ground and being wasted, and the weathering
 effect, that lessens the value of the lint that is not picked when it
should be. ]
My company has provided 522 houses, some of wood and some of
adobe, and 180 tents; and of these there have been empty the following
 numbers on the dates named:
Sept. 18____.
Oct. 1... SR
Ob, 1B. cuvcnmimn wim nmi sm si si
Nov. 1. ______
Nov. 15

This is a specific instance of the shortage as the picking has been
such that satisfactory wages could have been earned at all times
throughout the season. The Mexicans have been and still are our
most satisfactory Pima cotton pickers, as through experience they
have become expert and us ually prefer it to the upland varieties.
They can earn more pic king Pima than they can the upland at the
prevailing rates which have varied this past year from 1¥% to 1% cents
per pound for the upland and 2 to 2% to 2% cents for the Pima.
Bi: What they can earn, of course, varies greatly, depending, first,
upon the skill of the individual, then upon his industry as evidenced
by the number of hours he works and also by the amount of cotton
that there is open and ready for harvesting.
It has been our experience that white labor will not pick Pima
cotton. Most of them having come from cotton-producing States
where they have picked the big-boll upland types, can not successfully
 gather the small-boll Pima, it being an altogether different
question. Some will attempt it, but only as a last resort, and they
are not satisfactory. I have had experience with the Porto Ricans,
who were imported in 1926, and they were the most unsatisfactory
type I ever have encountered. They were not only unskilled but
had absolutely no desire to even try to support themselves, their
sole attitude being “You brought us here, now take care of us.”
A shipment of Filipinos staved but one day in the field, and returned
 to the coast.