COTTON 199 



were exported. 1 Galveston and New Orleans are the great 

 cotton ports of this country, the shipments from Galveston 

 alone amounting to over $100,000,000 worth of cotton per 

 year. 



The estimated annual production of cotton in the 

 world in 1906 was about 21,000,000 bales, each weigh- 

 ing 500 pounds. Of this vast amount, over three-fifths 

 was produced in the United States, south of a line 

 drawn from Norfolk, Va., to Memphis, Tenn., and ,west 

 to Oklahoma City and El Paso, Texas. This means that 

 the world is dependent on this section of the United States 

 for its cotton, and indicates the great possibilities which 

 can be attained by the farmers of the South who carefully 

 cultivate this crop. 



188. Historical. The cotton plant is of very ancient 

 origin, antedating all recorded history. It is supposed 

 to have originated in India, but China may have been 

 its original home. 2 It is spoken of in ancient history as 

 tree wool. The people of India acquired great skill in the 

 weaving of cloth from the fiber of the cotton plant. An- 

 cient historians and travelers mention plants similar to 

 cotton in the various countries of southern Asia and 

 Africa, and it is also known that Columbus and other ex- 

 plorers who visited the western hemisphere found native 

 cotton growing in the West Indian islands and in South 

 America and in the territory now controlled by Mexico. 



189. Development in the United States. Cotton was 

 first cultivated in the United States in the colony of 



'Yearbook United States Department of Agriculture, 1907, pp. 15 

 and 22. 



'Cotton is mentioned as a tribute from southern China to the ruler 

 3,000 years before Christ. Thesis in Cornell University Library, by 

 Koliang Yih. 



