CHAPTER XXII 

 COTTON — HISTORY AND STATISTICS 



Cotton appears to be a native of the tropical parts of 

 both hemispheres. The cotton plant was grown in India 

 many centuries before the beginning of the Christian era. 

 Until about a century ago, India continued to produce 

 most of the world's supply of cotton; it now ranks as 

 second only to the United States in the amount of cotton 

 produced. Gradually the cultivation of cotton spread 

 from India until at least small areas were grown in Egypt 

 and other parts of northern Africa, in Spain (where cotton 

 was probably introduced by the Moors), and in Italy. 



Egypt, now the third largest producer of cotton in the 

 world, probably learned cotton culture at a much later 

 date than did the inhabitants of India. 



England, which now manufactures more cotton than 

 any other country, apparently did not manufacture cotton 

 cloth until about the seventeenth century. 



349. History in America. • — Columbus found cotton 

 growing in the West Indies in 1492, as did Cortez in Mexico 

 in 1519. Indeed, at that time cotton constituted the 

 principal clothing of the natives of Mexico. A few years 

 later explorers found cotton growing in Peru and Brazil. 

 It is interesting to note that the American Indians in- 

 habiting what now constitutes the cotton-growing states 

 of the Union appear to have been without cotton. But 



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