[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 125 (Thursday, September 18, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1806]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     SHAFTER COTTON RESEARCH STATION: A CALIFORNIA FARMING LANDMARK

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                         HON. WILLIAM M. THOMAS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 18, 1997

  Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, the Shafter Cotton Research Center, in 
Shafter, CA, is celebrating 75 years of research for California cotton 
production and this month becomes a State registered landmark. The 
designation recognizes the important research contributions this center 
has made to the California cotton industry. We also recognize the 
historic relationship between California cotton growers, the University 
of California, Kern County and the U.S. Department of Agriculture that 
has made the Shafter Cotton Research Center so successful.
  This center got its start in 1922 and has been in the forefront of 
efforts to buck common wisdom ever since. At that time, many people in 
the cotton industry thought California was too far from the mills in 
the eastern United States for California to ever become a cotton 
powerhouse. The work done in cooperation between Federal, State and 
local government and private industry that led to the ACALA cotton 
variety developed here proved the skeptics wrong. Since then, work on 
the 120-acre center grounds has produced innovations in labor-saving 
mechanization, pest control and other farm practices.
  The California industry made possible by the Shafter Cotton Research 
Center contributes over $1 billion to the California farm economy and 
$340 million to Kern County. California cotton's quality is so well 
known around the world that 80 percent of the cotton grown here goes 
into export markets.
  The Shafter Cotton Research Center continues to lead in cotton 
industry research. Today's research is looking into ways to reduce 
tillage in cotton production, potentially valuable to farmers faced 
with clean air requirements to reduce airborne dust. The center is also 
doing work on sophisticated means of monitoring crop health, means 
which could allow farmers to reduce applications of pesticides and 
other chemicals. It is still a cooperative venture. Under an agreement 
struck in 1991, the Department of Agriculture, the University of 
California, Kern County and the cotton industry are cooperating to keep 
the research center in operation so that this unique facility will 
continue to produce cutting-edge technology for the California cotton 
farmer of the 21st century.
  The Shafter Cotton Research Center is a landmark in California to the 
creative energies of generations of farmers and scientists because of 
the way everyone has rolled up their 100 percent cotton sleeves to work 
together. We recognize that cooperation's key role in the center's 
historic and future importance.

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