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The World's Commercial Products 



Africa } cotton grows 

 wild, and is used by the 

 natives to make cloths. 

 The cotton plant 

 belongs botanically to 

 the Mallow Order or 

 Malvaceae, and is closely 

 related to the ordinary 

 wild mallows and to 

 the hollyhocks of our 

 gardens. Most of the 

 species are shrubs or 

 small trees, and in 

 warm countries are per- 

 ennial. A winter, how- 

 ever, kills the plants, 

 and in the United 

 States new plants have 

 to be raised from seed 

 every year. This prac- 

 tice is also carried out 

 when cotton is culti- 

 vated in countries which have no winter, as it frequently gives better results than when 

 the plants are allowed to grow for several years. 



Cotton plants have large yellow, white, or red flowers, not unlike rather small hollyhock 

 flowers, and each flower forms a capsule or " boll." When fully ripe the boll splits into three 

 pieces, and displays the white cottony mass, consisting of a number of seeds, each having 

 firmly attached to it a dense covering of fine hairs, which are the raw cotton of commerce. 



Photo by Putnam and Valentine 



SHIPPING COTTON AT NEW ORLEANS 



COTTON-PRODUCING COUNTRIES 



Cotton is distinctly a warm-climate crop, and a glance at the map of the cotton-growing 

 regions of the world shows us that it is grown in almost every part of the earth between about 

 40° N. and 30° S. of the Equator. In America the principal regions are the south-eastern 

 part of •the United States, Central America, the West Indies, Brazil, Mexico, and Peru. In 

 Europe small cotton areas are found scattered around the Mediterranean, in Spain, Italy, 

 Turkey, and Greece. India, China, Japan, Persia, and Asia Minor are in their order the chief 

 cotton-producing countries of Asia. In Australia cotton is onty grown to a very small extent, 

 chiefly in "Queensland, South Australia, and New South Wales. Africa is an important con- 

 tributor to the world's cotton supply owing to the great amount grown in Egypt ; on the 

 west coas.t Lagos has. a considerable export, and efforts are being made to extend cotton 

 cultivation in Nigeria and elsewhere. Rhodesia, East Africa, and Madagascar also either 

 produce cotton or are likely to do so .in the near future. 



.Although, cotton is grown in. so many places, most of the world's commercial supply is 

 obtained from three countries — the United States, India, and Egypt. The United States 

 produce about six-tenths of the world's supply, India about two-tenths, Egypt one-tenth, and 

 all the rest of the world together only the remaining tenth. The United States control the 

 cotton, market, and any diminution in the supply from this source, due to a short crop or to 

 artificial manipulation by speculators, entails grave consequences to the vast cotton industry 

 in Lancashire. Such a shortage was brought about by the American Civil War in 1864, when 

 the price of cotton reached a very high figure, and much distress was caused in England. Again, 



