PART IV 



OTHER FARM CROPS. 



THE COTTON PLANT. 



Cotton is the principal product of eight great States of the 

 Union, and the most valuable money crop of the entire country. 

 Climatic conditions practically restrict its cultivation to a group of 

 States constituting less than one-fourth of the total area of our coun- 

 try, and yet the value of the annual crop is exceeded among culti- 

 vated products only by corn, which is grown in every state of the 

 Union, and occasionally by wheat. Cotton furnishes the raw ma- 

 terial for one of our most important manufacturing industries and 

 from one-fourth to one-third of our total exports. 



Considered without reference to any particular country, its 

 economic importance is far beyond numerical expression ; for while 

 the total crop of the world is approximately ascertainable, the effect 

 of cotton upon the commercial and social relations of mankind is 

 too far-reaching for estimation. Of the four great staples that pro- 

 vide man with clothing cotton, silk, wool, and flax cotton, by rea- 

 son of its cheapness and its many excellencies, is rapidly supersed- 

 ing its several rivals. 



Cotton stands pre-eminent among farm crops in the ease and 

 cheapness of its production, as compared with the variety and value 

 of its products. No crop makes so slight a drain upon the fertility 

 of the soil, and for none has modern enterprise found so many uses 

 for its several parts. The cotton plant yields, in fact, a double crop 

 a most beautiful fiber and a seed yielding both oil and feed, which, 

 although neglected for a long time, is now esteemed worth one-sixth 

 as much as the fiber. In addition to this, the stems can be made to 

 yield a fiber which waits only for a machine to work it, and the roots 

 yield a drug. It is entirely possible, therefore, that cotton may ulti- 

 mately be grown as much for these parts as for the lint. (U. S. E. S. 

 B. 33.) 



Botany of Cotton. Cotton (Cotton Gossypium spp.) belongs to 

 the order Malvaceae, which also includes okra and the hollyhock. 

 The varieties of cotton cultivated in the Southern States belong to 

 two species, upland cotton (Gossypium herbaceum) and sea-island 

 cotton (Gossypium barbadense). Cotton was known to the ancient 

 Asiatics and Egyptians, and was found growing wild in America by 

 Columbus and other early explorers. It is therefore thought to be 

 a native of both hemispheres. In its wild state, especially in tropical 

 climates, cotton is a perennial shrub, but as cultivated in the South 

 it is an annual plant. The cultivated cotton plant is a small shrub 



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