FIBER PLANTS 413 



length of the fibers, the most highly prized being the Sea 

 Island cotton, with its long and silky fibers. This cotton 

 grows to the greatest perfection along the coast regions of 

 South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. There is also " up- 

 land " cotton grown in the United States, whose fibers are 

 shorter than those of the Sea Island cotton, but which can 

 be cultivated over a much more extensive area than the 

 finer cotton. In the market the various cottons are graded 

 according to the length of the fibers. 



It is well known to every school boy and girl that a new 

 epoch in the production of cotton was introduced by Whit- 

 ney's invention of the cotton gin in 1793 ; and from that 

 time the production of cotton in the United States has been 

 an increasing industry in the southern states. In 1860 the 

 United States furnished 79 per cent of the cotton used in 

 Europe,, but during the Civil War it dropped to a little over 

 3 per cent; in 1900 it had risen again to 80 per cent. In 

 1911 the total cotton production of the United States was 

 14,775,000 bales, while the estimated production for 1912 

 was 13,000,000 bales. A standard bale weighs 500 pounds. 



It is interesting to compare the production of cotton in 

 the various countries of the world, and also to compare its 

 production in the various southern states. The total pro- 

 duction of cotton in the world cannot be known, since a large 

 amount is produced and used in countries where no records 

 are kept. The following figures, therefore, deal only with 

 those countries from which information can be obtained 

 which is either exact or approximate. Taking only such 

 countries into the count, the world's production of cotton 

 in 1910 was about 20,000,000 bales. The comparison of 

 cotton-producing countries in 1910 is as follows, the figures 

 indicating the number of bales: United States 11,608,000, 

 India 3,874,000, Egypt 1,570,000, China 1,200,000, Russia 

 688,000, Brazil 270,000, Mexico 200,000, Turkey 141,000, 

 Persia 128,000, Peru 115,000. 



