25G 
COTTON 
zoo Delta, Miss., a few counties in South 
Carolina, and the Imperial Valley of south¬ 
ern California. Egyptian cotton, which 
has a very long staple (1to 1 % inches), 
is grown in the Salt River Valley, Ariz. 
Cotton was cultivated in Mexico and Peru 
at the time of their discovery by the Span¬ 
iards, and the American species probably 
originated in tropical America. The Asi¬ 
atic cottons have white seeds while the 
American cottons are black-seeded. There 
is a valid species of cotton indigenous to 
the Sandwich Islands and another to the 
Society Islands. 
Upland cotton ( G. hirsutum) is a peren¬ 
nial, but is commonly treated as an annual. 
It requires at least six months free from 
frost. The plant grows from 3 to 10 feet 
tall and bears alternate, palmate leaves 
with 3 to 5 lobes. The large erect flowers 
are 3 inches across and on the first day 
are a creamy white or pale yellow, but soon 
after midday they begin to turn reddish 
and on the second day are a deep reddish 
purple. The flowers of Sea Island cotton 
are yellow with a reddish purple spot at 
the base of each of the 5 petals. The 5 
sepals are united into a cup or calyx, and 
below the flower there is an involucre or 
whorl of 3 green leaf-like bracts. The in¬ 
volucre becomes dry and brittle and is 
often torn off with the boll by careless 
pickers. 
LONG STAPLE AND SHORT STAPLE COTTON. 
AVhen ripe the boll, or seed vessel, splits 
into 3 to 5 lobes, locules, or locks, contain¬ 
ing the seeds covered with long fibrous 
bail's or cotton, a provision for their dis¬ 
persal by the wind. A lock seldom con¬ 
tains more than 9 seeds. Cotton fiber is 
known as lint, floss, or staple and varies 
greatly in length, the greatest difference 
between short staple and long staple varie¬ 
ties being nearly an inch. When the fibers 
are under lVs inches in length the cotton 
is short staple, and ivhen more than this 
length it is long staple. In Sea Island cot¬ 
ton the staple or lint may be 2 inches long. 
The lint varies greatly in strength, and in 
color from white to yellowish brown. As 
the fiber dries it becomes flattened and 
twisted into a spiral like a corkscrew, when 
it can be spun into a thread, even by the 
fingers, since the spirals adhere to each 
other. 
THE COTTON BELT. 
Cotton ranks second in value among the 
ci’ops of the United States, and in the cot¬ 
ton belt its value exceeds that of all other 
crops combined. In 1920 the acreage was 
35,504,000 acres and the average annual 
number of bales produced during five 
years (1914-1918) was 12,424,000. The 
northern limit of cotton-growing in this 
country follows closely the mean annual 
temperature line of 77 degrees, and very 
little cotton is grown where there are less 
than 200 days without frost. There must 
be an annual rainfall of 23 inches. The 
cotton belt comprises chiefly eastern North 
Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, north¬ 
ern Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, the 
western lowlands of Tennessee, Arkansas, 
Louisiana, Oklahoma, and eastern Texas; 
the densest areas are in the Piedmont Pla¬ 
teau and Upper Atlantic Coastal Plain of 
South Carolina and Georgia, the Black 
Prairie of Alabama and Mississippi, the 
Yazoo Delta in northwestern Mississippi, 
the Red River Valley in Arkansas, and, 
most important of all, the Black Prairie of 
Texas. 
The thirteenth census gives the acreage . 
under cultivation in the southern States as 
follows: 
State. 
Acres. 
Bales. 
Virginia . 
. 25,000 
1,480 
North Carolina . . 
. 1,274,400 
665,130 
South Carolina . . . 
. 2,556,460 
1,279,800 
Georgia . 
. 4,883,304 
1,992,408 
Florida . 
. 263,454 
65,053 
Alabama . 
. 3,730,482 
1.129,500 
Mississippi . 
. 3,400,216 
1,127,156 
Tennessee . . . 
264,562 
Arkansas . 
. 2,153,222 
776,879 
Oklahoma . 
. 1,976,935 
556,472 
Louisiana . 
. 937,011 
268,909 
Texas . 
. 9,930,17'9 
2,455,174 
American upland cotton ( G. hirsutum ) 
is almost exclusively planted over this vast 
area. More than 600 varieties have been 
named and described, which are divided 
into groups according to the size of the 
boll, the length of the staple, and earliness 
of fruiting. The big boll group is the 
most popular and widely grown since, the 
cotton can be more easily and quickly 
picked. 
NECTARIES. 
The cotton plant has both floral and 
extra-floral nectaries. The floral nectary 
