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 onlv to the United States in the amount of cotton 

 produced. GraduaUy the cultivation of cotton spread 

 from India until at least small areas were groT\-n in Eg}-pt 

 and other parts of northern Africa, in .Spain 'where cotton 

 was probably introduced by the ]\Ioorsj, and in Italy. 



Egj-pt, now the third largest pjroducer of cotton in the 

 world, probably learned cotton culture at a much later 

 date than did the iniiabitants of India. 



England, which now manufactures more cotton than 

 any other country, apparenth- did not manufacture cotton 

 cloth until about the se^•enteenth century, 



349. History in America, — Columbus found cotton 

 growing in the West Indies in 1492. as did Cortez in ]\Iexico 

 in 1.519. Indeed, at that time cotton constituted the 

 principal clothing of the natives of ^lexico. A few years 

 later explorers found cotton gro-ning 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 



