312 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS 



doors and entering regions that have until now 

 had no contact with the world outside. Savage 

 peoples are receiving strange visitors from over 

 seas, whether they wish to or not. Africa, the 

 dark continent, and China, with its millions of 

 inhabitants, have been thrown open recently. 



"It is estimated that of the world's population 

 of 1,500,000,000, about 500,000,000 regularly 

 wear clothes, about 750,000,000 are partially 

 clothed, and 250,000,000 habitually go almost 

 naked. To clothe the entire population of the 

 world would require to-day 42,000,000 bales of 

 cotton, of 500 pounds each. It therefore seems 

 likely that the cotton industry will go on expand- 

 ing until the whole of the inhabited earth is 

 clothed with the products of its looms." The 

 cotton experts of the Department of Agriculture 

 at Washington thus reason and predict the need 

 and the means of its fulfilment. 



The fibre that clothes the multitudes must not 

 only be strong and soft and flexible; it must be 

 cheap. Cotton is all of these. Cotton imitates 

 the silkiness of silk, the wooliness of wool, the 

 strength and sheen of fine linen. It is all things 

 to all men. We know it in a half a hundred forms 

 in our homes this useful, beautiful fibre. We 

 wake in the morning, and see the sunrise through 



