COTTON 



1GOS 



COTTON 



A Booklet on Cotton 



Fold three sheets of paper Into a 

 booklet of twelve pages. 

 Cover page SuDflect, name of pupil and 



school. 



Illustrate with a border design of con- 

 ventionalized cotton blossoms. 

 Inside cover Index. 

 Page one Poem, The Cotton Plant. 

 Illustrations: Illustrate each stanza 

 with the object described child's 

 dress, child's reading book, news- 

 paper, etc. 



Page two Story of cotton : varieties, 

 where raised, planting, cultivating, 

 harvesting. 

 Illustrations : Plant and blossoms, 



open boll, cotton tit-Id. 

 Page three Cotton ginning and press- 

 ing. 



Illustrations : Whitney's gin, show- 

 Ing working parts ; modern gin ; gin 

 and press building. 

 Page four History and growth of the 



cotton industry. 

 Illustrations : Hauling to market ; 



cotton market ; loading steamer. 

 Page five Cotton products fabrics, 

 rope, batting, absorbent cotton, ex- 

 plosives, celluloid, artificial silk. 

 Illustrations : Old-fashioned spin- 

 ning wheel ; up-to-date spinning 

 frame ; loom. 



Page six Cottonseed products cattle 

 feed, oil, oil cake, meal, hulls, cot- 

 tolene. 



Illustrations: Oil, cottolene, meal. 

 Page seven Cotton textiles gingham, 

 prints, percales, muslins, calicoes, 

 denims. 



Illustrations : Samples of fabrics and 

 development of same. Make an 

 original design for calico. 

 Page eight Enemies of cotton (see 



article). 

 Illustrations : Sketch of boll weevil 



and plant, showing damage done. 

 Inside back cover Biography of Ell 



Whitney. 

 Back cover Blank. 



Directioms for fighting the boll weevil are 

 given in the article BOLL WEEVIL. 



Other enemies of cotton are the' diseases 

 caused by certain flowerless plants known as 

 fungi (which see). Important among these 

 diseases is wilt, produced by a fungus that en- 

 ters the roots of the plant through the soil, 

 clogging its cells and causing its leaves to droop 

 and die. No method of curing this disease is 

 known, and it is best fought by destroying 

 infected plants and by means of crop rota- 



tion. Extreme dry or wet weather, or poor 

 soil, may cause the drying up or shedding of 

 the bolls by interfering with the supply of 

 nourishment furnished the plant through its 

 roots. 



One authority makes the statement that the 

 cotton plant has more to fear from ignorance 

 than from all enemies combined. The more 

 enlightened the planter becomes in matters 

 pertaining to the preparation of the soil and 

 the care of the plants, the better equipped will 

 he be to combat the enemies of the crop. 



Some Cotton Figures. The Southern states 

 of America furnish the nations of the world 

 with the bulk of the raw cotton used by their 

 manufacturers. The following table shows the 

 average annual production in bales of 500 

 pounds each, of the states not represented in 

 the accompanying graphic illustration: 



Oklahoma 955,000 



Arkansas 921,000 



North Carolina 875^000 



Liouisiana 402,000 



Tennessee 357,000 



Missouri 71,000 



Florida 65,000 



Virginia 24,000 



Other states . . . 33,000 



The cotton mills of the United States con- 

 sume each year about 5,000,000 bales. Expor- 

 tations to Europe were very seriously affected 

 by the outbreak of the War of the Nations 

 in 1914, but under normal conditions Great 

 Britain imports 4,000,000 bales of American 

 cotton a year ; Germany and France are next in 

 order, with averages of 2,800,000 and 1,150,000. 

 Italy purchases over 560,000; Spain, about 315,- 

 000; and Belgium about 222,000. Over 400,000 

 bales are sent each year to Japan, and about 

 170,000 to Canada. 



Great Britain became the leading cotton- 

 manufacturing country of the world in the 

 eighteenth century, and continues to hold that 

 position. The industry is centered in Lanca- 

 shire. Germany, Russia, Japan, India, France, 

 Austria, Italy, Belgium, Spain, Canada, Neth- 

 erlands and Switzerland are the countries next 

 in order. After the outbreak of the War of 

 the Nations Japan and Spain greatly increased 

 their output. 



The total number of spindles in the United 

 States is over 30,000,000, and more than a 

 third of these are in Massachusetts. South 

 Carolina ranks second, North Carolina third, 

 and Rhode Island, Georgia, New Hampshire, 

 Connecticut and Maine have each over 1,000,- 

 000 spindles. B.M.W. 



