COTTON 117 



CHAPTER XII. 



COTTON PRODUCTION. 



THE cotton plant was cultivated in the Old World in 

 the earliest historic times. It probably originated in India 

 or China. The ancients of India wove the fiber into very 

 good cloth. Alexander the Great introduced the plant into 

 Europe. Cotton was also grown by the natives of Mexico 

 and South America before the discovery of the New World 

 by Columbus. 



To Virginia belongs the credit of first starting the culti- 

 vation of cotton in the American Colonies. This was in 1621. 

 After that it rapidly became a leading money crop of the 

 farmers of the South. The labor of removing the lint from 

 the seeds greatly reduced the profit from this crop for many 

 years. It was a day's labor to separate the seeds from one 

 pound of cotton. But in 1792 the cotton gin was invented 

 by Eli Whitney. This machine, as improved later, greatly 

 increased the profits of cotton raising. 



Importance of the American Cotton Crop. Cotton is 

 far the most important fiber crop of the world. Twelve 

 Southern States now supply more than two-thirds of the 

 cotton of the world. All nations make clothing from Ameri- 

 can cotton. We sell more cotton to other countries than all 

 other agricultural products combined. 



Other countries producing large amounts of cotton are 

 British India, Egypt, Russia, China, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, 

 Turkey and Persia. But all of these combined produce 

 only one-half as much cotton as is grown in the United States. 



The ten leading States in the production of cotton are 

 in the following order: Texas, Georgia, Mississippi, Ala- 

 bama, South Carolina, Arkansas, Oklahoma, North Carolina, 

 Louisiana and Tennessee. 



Uses of Cotton. The fibers of the commonest cotton 

 are only about one inch long, but they become very much 



