CHAPTER I 



INTRODUCTION 

 HISTORY OF COTTON 



COTTON is the world's greatest fiber 

 crop. History records nothing that 

 compares to it as a cash crop. The 

 cotton crop is extensively grown in but 

 twelve of the Southern States, and exceeds 

 in total value any other crop in the United 

 States, except corn, which is produced in each 

 of the forty-eight states of the Union. The 

 spinners of Europe are much more concerned 

 about the size of the American cotton crop 

 each fall than about the peace of nations. The 

 cotton plant furnishes the raw material for 

 the greatest textile industry of all times. The 

 volume of the export trade it supports is enor- 

 mous. 



Cotton has been known and perhaps used as 

 fiber since the earliest civilization. The im- 

 portant part it was to play in the economic 



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