When Prince meets King

Here are several common denominators between Gossypium hirsutum and Colinus virginianus.

1. Both are weak perennials, but managed as annuals.

2. Insects are an important consideration for both, albeit for different reasons.

3. Each harbors its own complement of pests.

4. Production of each fluctuates annually with rainfall.

5. Farmers of each annually proclaim that "things will be better next year."

6. November marks the beginning of the harvest (at least before defoliants were available!).

7. One bale, or one quail, per acre is a good production goal in west Texas.

8. The farmer can have a profound impact on his crop via cultivation.

9. Traditions of both are deeply rooted in west Texas.

10. The Farm Bill can be an important keystone in both production systems.

11. And finally, while there are substitutes for both (synthetics and farm-reared birds), nothing beats the real thing!

There are also some profound differences. Weeds are a bane to cotton, but a boon to bobwhites. I only wish we knew as much about forecasting a quail crop as we do a cotton crop. I wish we had data on "quail mapping" as we do with cotton mapping in order to know which parts of the "plant" had the greater yield potentials. There is no such thing as a Bt Bobwhite or Roundup-Ready Quail, as the bird is unchanged from bobwhites of 10,000 years ago. And alas, there is no "insurance quail" program to subsidize the hunting when drought grips the countryside.

Two dictums come to mind: Dwight Eisenhower’s "farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you’re a thousand miles from the cornfield," and an anonymous observation that "the best fertilizer is the footprint of the farmer." Both prescribe personal involvement as a prerequisite for success.

By royal decree, the king has dominion over the prince. So it is with much of the land north of I-20. Take Fisher County for example. Newton's 1st Law dictates that an object in motion tends to stay in motion unless an external force acts on it. Cotton has a hundred years of inertia and land use conflicts between quail and cotton will fall on the side of cotton.

But the prince is groomed as an eventual successor to the throne. I don't know if quail will ever surpass cotton in this area, but a number of Mr. Ely's gins can be seen decomposing as one drives the west Texas countryside. Cotton prices are in the doldrums, and are dictated by what's going on in destinations far from the South Plains. This year's cotton crop will be lucky to bring $225 per bale, and how much of that will be net profit? Conversely, the demand (hence price) for quail is booming and for most landowners hunting-related income is almost all net profit. Based on statistics from Texas Quail Unlimited members in 1999, the average quail they bagged cost them $207. What used to be a denim product has turned to cashmere (or should that be "cashmore?").

The export market is a key component of the economics of either crop. Non-resident quail hunters from cotton mecca-states like Georgia have increased 56% since 1981. But the domestic market isn't as rosy; resident quail hunter numbers have waned 66% during the same time period.

When I started to grade school in 1961 in Hollis, Oklahoma, I can remember being envious when I heard that the neighboring community of Gould actually dismissed classes for six weeks for "boll pulling." It was a community thing. And, if the belts don't slip off the colin compress, quail hunting will continue to gain inertia as a lynchpin in rural community development.

I chopped cotton as a kid in southwestern Oklahoma, and I can remember at least once pulling a cotton sack. I've spent many days in a cotton trailer forking bolls behind a squirrel-tail cotton stripper when I could have been quail hunting. Personally I'd rather be tramping through the broomweeds in search of quail than tramping cotton on a cold November day. If you’ve ever tramped cotton, perhaps you can appreciate the difference. I always thought a Wingmaster fit my hands better than a pitchfork!