THE TEXTILE PLANTS 51 



ment. Suffice it that America now produces not 

 far from three-quarters of the world's total 

 cotton crop, the land devoted to this crop aggre- 

 gating more than twenty-five million acres, and 

 the annual yield averaging something like twelve 

 million bales, with a value of much more than 

 half a billion dollars. 



It is obvious that a plant that has such com- 

 mercial importance is one that beckons the plant 

 developer. For even slight improvements, when 

 applied on so magnificent a scale, may have vast 

 significance. 



CULTIVATION AND IMPROVEMENTS 



Some very good work has been done in the 

 improvement of the cotton by selection, without 

 the aid of hybridizing. 



The cotton plant came originally from the 

 Orient, having been cultivated in India from time 

 immemorial. It belongs to a large family that 

 includes the hibiscus, bearing beautiful flowers, 

 and the vegetable called, in the South, Gumbo. 



The Egyptian and Peruvian cotton and Sea 

 Island cotton falls into one group and the 

 American upland cotton and Indian cotton into 

 another. It is doubted, however, whether the 

 wild prototypes of the cultivated species are 

 known. 



