Shafter Research Station | |
Nearest city | Shafter, California |
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Coordinates | 35°31′52″N119°16′41″W / 35.53111°N 119.27806°W |
Area | 17.5 acres (7.1 ha) |
Built | 1922 |
NRHP reference No. | 97001211 [1] |
Added to NRHP | October 17, 1997 |
Shafter Cotton Research Station | |
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Location | 17053 Shafter Avenue, Shafter, Kern County, California |
Built | 1922 |
Official name | Shafter Cotton Research Station |
Designated | March 3, 1997 |
Reference no. | 1022 [2] |
Shafter Research Station is an agricultural research station near Shafter, Kern County, California, in the San Joaquin Valley.
The station was established in 1922 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) as Shafter Cotton Research Station. It was built to provide California with high-quality cotton. Initial research at the station focused on growing long-staple cotton, Egyptian Pima cotton, which was used to make airplane wings at the time. The Hatch Act of 1887 provided for U.S. funding of agricultural science.
By 1925, the researchers had determined that Acala cotton, named after Acala, Texas, was the highest-quality variety of long-staple cotton; they then developed the "one variety" method of cotton production, in which every California cotton producer would grow Acala cotton. As a result of this research, the state of California enacted the California One Variety Cotton Act, which mandated that California cotton producers could grow only Acala cotton. The law spurred the growth of California's fledgling cotton industry, which now forms a major part of the state's agricultural economy. The success of the "one variety" policy caused the station to earn an international reputation for its research, and procedures developed at the station have been used in the Australian and Israeli cotton industries.
The Shafter Cotton Research Station changed from a USDA research station to a private one in June 2012. The San Joaquin Valley Quality Cotton Growers Association now runs the facility. With this change, the former Shafter Cotton Research Station now works other crops, including orchard crops. Today the facility consists of a 20-acre campus, 20 buildings and 60 acres of experimental crops. [3] [4]
The Shafter Research Station was made a California Historical Landmark (#1022) on March 3, 1997, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 17, 1997. [1]
Fresno County, officially the County of Fresno, is a county located in the central portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 1,008,654. The county seat is Fresno, the fifth-most populous city in California.
Kern County is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 909,235. Its county seat is Bakersfield.
The Central Valley is a broad, elongated, flat valley that dominates the interior of California. It is 40–60 mi (60–100 km) wide and runs approximately 450 mi (720 km) from north-northwest to south-southeast, inland from and parallel to the Pacific coast of the state. It covers approximately 18,000 sq mi (47,000 km2), about 11% of California's land area. The valley is bounded by the Coast Ranges to the west and the Sierra Nevada to the east.
Bakersfield is a city in Kern County, California, United States. Bakersfield is the most populous city and county seat of Kern County. The city covers about 151 sq mi (390 km2) near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley, which is located in the Central Valley region.
Shafter is a city in Kern County, California, United States. It is located 18 miles (29 km) west-northwest of Bakersfield. The population was 16,988 at the 2010 census, up from 12,736 at the 2000 census. The city is located along State Route 43. Suburbs of Shafter include Myricks Corner, North Shafter, Smith Corner, and Thomas Lane.
The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is the principal in-house research agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). ARS is one of four agencies in USDA's Research, Education and Economics mission area. ARS is charged with extending the nation's scientific knowledge and solving agricultural problems through its four national program areas: nutrition, food safety and quality; animal production and protection; natural resources and sustainable agricultural systems; and crop production and protection. ARS research focuses on solving problems affecting Americans every day. The ARS Headquarters is located in the Jamie L. Whitten Building on Independence Avenue in Washington, D.C., and the headquarters staff is located at the George Washington Carver Center (GWCC) in Beltsville, Maryland. For 2018, its budget was $1.2 billion.
The San Joaquin Valley is the southern half of California's Central Valley, an area drained by the San Joaquin River. Praised as a breadbasket, the San Joaquin Valley is a major source of food, producing a significant part of California's agricultural output.
Walker Pass is a mountain pass by Lake Isabella in the southern Sierra Nevada. It is located in northeastern Kern County, approximately 53 mi (85 km) ENE of Bakersfield and 10 mi (16 km) WNW of Ridgecrest. The pass provides a route between the Kern River Valley and San Joaquin Valley on the west, and the Mojave Desert on the east.
Gossypium barbadense is one of several species of cotton. It is in the mallow family. It has been cultivated since antiquity, but has been especially prized since a form with particularly long fibers was developed in the 1800s. Other names associated with this species include Sea Island, Egyptian, Pima, and extra-long staple (ELS) cotton.
Wofford Benjamin "Bill" Camp (1894–1986) was a USDA agronomist who played an instrumental role in the development of corporate farming, particularly of cotton, in California.
This article summarizes different crops, what common fungal problems they have, and how fungicide should be used in order to mitigate damage and crop loss. This page also covers how specific fungal infections affect crops present in the United States.
Kern River Slough is a former settlement in Kern County, California.
Riverside, California, was founded in 1870, and named for its location beside the Santa Ana River. It became the county seat when Riverside County, California, was established in 1893.
The Sebastian Indian Reservation (1853-1864), more commonly known as the Tejon Indian Reservation, was formerly at the southwestern corner of the San Joaquin Valley in the Tehachapi Mountains, in southern central California.
The California agricultural strikes of 1933 were a series of strikes by mostly Mexican and Filipino agricultural workers throughout the San Joaquin Valley. More than 47,500 workers were involved in the wave of approximately 30 strikes from 1931 to 1941. Twenty-four of the strikes, involving 37,500 union members, were led by the Cannery and Agricultural Workers' Industrial Union (CAWIU). The strikes are grouped together because most of them were organized by the CAWIU. Strike actions began in August among cherry, grape, peach, pear, sugar beet, and tomato workers, and culminated in a number of strikes against cotton growers in the San Joaquin Valley in October. The cotton strikes involved the largest number of workers. Sources vary as to numbers involved in the cotton strikes, with some sources claiming 18,000 workers and others just 12,000 workers, 80% of whom were Mexican.
The Santa Fe Passenger and Freight Depot is a former Santa Fe Railroad station located at 150 Central Valley Highway in Shafter, in the southern San Joaquin Valley within Kern County, California.
The United States exports more cotton than any other country, though it ranks third in total production, behind China and India. Almost all of the cotton fiber growth and production occurs in the Southern United States and the Western United States, dominated by Texas, California, Arizona, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana. More than 99 percent of the cotton grown in the US is of the Upland variety, with the rest being American Pima. Cotton production is a $21 billion-per-year industry in the United States, employing over 125,000 people in total, as against growth of forty billion pounds a year from 77 million acres of land covering more than eighty countries. The final estimate of U.S. cotton production in 2012 was 17.31 million bales, with the corresponding figures for China and India being 35 million and 26.5 million bales, respectively. Cotton supports the global textile mills market and the global apparel manufacturing market that produces garments for wide use, which were valued at USD 748 billion and 786 billion, respectively, in 2016. Furthermore, cotton supports a USD 3 trillion global fashion industry, which includes clothes with unique designs from reputed brands, with global clothing exports valued at USD 1.3 trillion in 2016.
Cotton production in Pakistan is integral to the economic development of the country. The nation is largely dependent on the cotton industry and its related textile sector, and the crop has been given a principal status in the country. Cotton is grown as an industrial crop in 15% of the nation's land during the monsoon months of April-May, known as the Kharif period, and is grown at a smaller scale between February and April. Pakistan occupied the fourth position among the cotton growers of the world, the first three being India, China and USA.
Agriculture is a significant sector in California's economy, producing nearly US$50 billion in revenue in 2018. There are more than 400 commodity crops grown across California, including a significant portion of all fruits, vegetables, and nuts in the United States. In 2017, there were 77,100 unique farms and ranches in the state, operating across 25.3 million acres of land. The average farm size was 328 acres (133 ha), significantly less than the average farm size in the U.S. of 444 acres (180 ha).
The Shafter Cotton Research Station is a California Historical Landmark, located at 17053 Shafter Avenue just north of the town of Shafter, California. Built in 1922 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the station became California Historical Landmark No. 1022 on March 3, 1997. That same year, on October 17, the station was added to the National Register of Historic Places.