Genetic dreams: An environmental history of the California cotton industry, 1902-1953
详细信息
- 作者：Stemen ; Mark Lawrence
- 学历：Doctor
- 年：1999
- 关键词：Social sciences ; Biological sciences ; Environmental
- 导师：Rohrbough,Malcolm
- 毕业院校：The University of Iowa
- 专业：American history;Agriculture
- ISBN：9780599471795,0599471794
- CBH：9945452
- Country：USA
- 语种：English
- FileSize：12870846
- Pages：293
文摘
In 1902 the United States Department of Agriculture began developing a variety of cotton specifically for the desert Southwest. The work was part of a larger effort by the USDA's Bureau of Plant Industry,which through its Office of Western irrigated Agriculture,searched for crops suitable for the reclamation projects sprouting up throughout the western states. On a string of experiment stations in southeastern California and Arizona,USDA scientists spent the first decade of the 20th century developing a series of long-staple cotton varieties for farmers in the region. Their work to develop a long staple cotton industry in the Southwest took on national significance with the rise of tensions in Europe. Long staple cotton had important military applications. and in 1916 the USDA introduced their new varieties into the San Joaquin Valley to boost domestic production. Following the war the USDA developed a cotton variety suited for the new burgeoning automobile tire market in Los Angeles. To maintain the purity of the new "Acala" variety,farmers requested legislation be enacted to ban all others. Passed in 1925,the One Variety Law limited cotton production to the approved USDA variety,and established a government sponsored breeding program provided "pure" seed on a annual basis. Using government publications,and other archival material,this dissertation argues that the one variety law was a practical solution to a host of problems facing the USDA and western cotton farmers. A historical analysis of he law also revels the way government and science are bound in the production of public policy. The narrative follows the work of four USDA breeders--Thomas Kearney,Orator Cook,Wolford Camp,and George Harrison--who worked on experiment stations outside of the towns of Sacaton and Yuma in Arizona,and the towns of Bard and Shafter in California. The story ends in 1953,shortly after breeders at the Shafter station release the crown jewel of the program,Acala 4-42.