CHAPTER XXIV. 



FIBRE CROPS. 

 COTTON. 



Hiiitory. — The general cultivation of cotton is not 

 very ancient as compared with that of wheat. In a 

 limited way it was cultivated in southeastern India in 

 early times. The clothing of the ancient Egyptians 

 was made from wool and flax. Alexander the Great 

 is supposed to have brought the culture and use of 

 cotton to the notice of Europeans. It was found in 

 cultivation and use from Mexico and the West Indies 

 to Brazil and Peru when America was discovered. 



The cultivation of cotton in the United States was 

 very limited before the Revolutionary War. It is 

 said that in 1784 eight bales of American cotton were 

 confiscated in Liverpool on the plea that cotton did 

 not grow in America. 



Production. — The culture of cotton became one 

 of the World's industries upon the invention of the 

 cotton gin by Eli Whitney in 1792. In 1791 the 

 yield of cotton in the United States was two million 

 pounds; in 1801, forty-eight million pounds, while for 

 the decade just closed the average annual yield has 

 been three billion pounds. 



The leading cotton producing states in the order of 

 their importance are Texas, Mississippi, Georgia and 

 Alabama. The cultivation per land surface is greatest 

 in Mississippi. It is almost exclusively produced in 

 ten states — the eight South Atlantic and Gulf States 

 with Tennessee and Arkansas. 



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