OCR Text |
Show 6 REPOBT OF THE COM~SSIONER OF INDUN AFPAIFS. Berthold, Fort Totten, Fort Yuma, Flathead, Klamath, Lac du Flambeau, Mescalero, Nevada, Tongue River, Sac and Fox of Okla-homa, Shoshone, Southern Ute, Uintah, Warm Springs, White Earth, Winnebago, and Yakima. A horticulturist was appointed st the San Juan Agency. As an example of the sort of result that may be looked for from the experimental farms, I wish to call attention to the work of the experimental farm at Sacaton, Arir, in raising Egyptian cotton. As a result of two years' experiment sixteen bales of a fine grade of Egyptian cotton, weighing 8,886 pounds, were raised and shipped to New York markets. A small part of this cotton was raised at the Phoenix School. Reliable tests showed that this cotton was very much stronger than ordinary southern cotton and averaged from one-eighth to one-fourth of an inch longer, which made it especially valuable for thread and fine qualities of cotton weaves. This cotton was sold for 31 cents a pound. This price strikingly contrasts with the ruling price for southern short staple cotton, which is 12 to 15 cents per pound. This cotton was raised through cooperative action between the Bureau of Plant Industry of the Agricultural Depart-ment and this office. The money and years of effort expended by that bureau in testing Egyptian cotton in Arizona culminahd in the production of this quantity of a high grade of cotton. A great opportunity is open for the superintendent of the Pima Reservation on which this cotton was grown, to stimulate the Indians there to successfully raise this high-grade cotton. The importance of the agricultural fair as a means of stimulating interest in farming among the Indians has been convincingly dem-onstrated by its success among the Crows. Last year the superin-tendents of the Tongue River, Fort Belkuap, and Fort Peck reserva-tions in Montana, and the superintendent of the Fort Totten Reserva-tion in North Dakota, attended the Crow fair, and reported that such fairs are a benefit on those reservations that have opportunities for growing field crops. The fair promotes healthy rivalry among In-dians and furnishes a rational basis for meeting together, which ought eventually to take the place of the indiscriminate gatherings of Indians, whioh are usually productive of considerable harm. Fairs were held last year at the following reservations: Crow, Capitan Grande, Cheyenne and Arapahoe, La Jolla, Pine Ridge, San Juan, and Southern Ute. Officers in charge of various reservations are being encouraged to hold these agricultural fairs. - On several reservations conspicuous progress in farming has been made during the year. On the Fort Peck Resewation about 50 per cent of the male adult Indians are cultivating their farms, and there is approximately 3,000 acres under cultivation, an increase of about 50 per cent over last |