SURROUNDINGS OF THE HOME 



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If a written list is made of fruits both domestic and 

 foreign, whether recognized at sight or known only by name, 

 and then the names are underscored of those of which con- 

 siderable is known and can be told, a lack of definite knowl- 

 edge of many of them is likely to become at once apparent. 

 If similar lists of grains, of nuts, and of textile plants are 

 made, too, it serves as a test of how much we know definitely 

 about what are commonly called the " useful plants." 



FIG. 87. Relative importance of the leading crops of the United States. 



The cotton plant has long furnished to mankind inexpen- 

 sive and durable clothing easily adapted to a wide range of 

 uses. With various chemical treatments of the cotton fibre, 

 and the wonderful results achieved in dyeing cotton fabrics 

 in these days, the products of factories employed in convert- 

 ing cotton into manufactured forms amaze one in their 

 variety and their attractiveness. Any list of the cotton 

 goods manufactured for clothing is in itself highly suggestive 

 of the importance to mankind of this one plant. This is 

 true not only in the usefulness of its finished products, but 

 in the employment furnished in the production and manu- 

 facture of cotton, and in the transportation of both raw 

 material and manufactured articles. 



