cotton

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Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum). (credit: Rod Heinrichs/Grant Heilman Photography)

Seed-hair fibre of various plants of the genus Gossypium, in the mallow family, native to most subtropical countries. The shrubby plants produce creamy white flowers, followed by small green seedpods (cotton bolls), which contain the seeds. Fibres growing from the outer skin of the seeds become tightly packed within the boll, which bursts open at maturity to reveal soft masses of the white to yellowish white fibres. Cotton is harvested when the bolls open. One of the world's leading agricultural crops, cotton is plentiful and economically produced, making cotton products relatively inexpensive. The fibres can be made into a diverse array of fabrics suitable for a great variety of apparel, home furnishings, and industrial uses. Cotton fabrics can be extremely durable and are comfortable to wear. Nonwoven cotton, made by fusing or bonding the fibres, is useful for making disposable products including towels, polishing cloths, tea bags, tablecloths, bandages, and disposable uniforms and sheets for hospital and other medical uses.

For more information on cotton, visit Britannica.com.

Background

Cotton is a shrubby plant that is a member of the Mallow family. Its name refers to the cream-colored fluffy fibers surrounding small cottonseeds called a boll. The small, sticky seeds must be separated from the wool in order to process the cotton for spinning and weaving. De-seeded cotton is cleaned, carded (fibers aligned), spun, and woven into a fabric that is also referred to as cotton. Cotton is easily spun into yarn as the cotton fibers flatten, twist, and naturally interlock for spinning. Cotton fabric alone accounts for fully half of the fiber worn in the world. It is a comfortable choice for warm climates in that it easily absorbs skin moisture. Most of the cotton cultivated in the United States is a short-staple cotton that grows in the American South. Cotton is planted annually by using the seeds found within the downy wool. The states that primarily cultivate cotton are located in the "Cotton Belt," which runs east and west and includes parts of California, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas, which alone produces nearly five million bales. Together, these states produce approximately 16 million bales a year, second only to China. Business revenue generated by cotton today is approximately $122.4 billion—the greatest revenue of any United States crop.

The cotton plant is a source for many important products other than fabric. Among the most important is cottonseed, which is pressed for cottonseed oil that is used in commercial products such as salad oils and snack foods, cosmetics, soap, candles, detergents, and paint. The hulls and meal are used for animal feed. Cotton is also a source for cellulose products, fertilizer, fuel, automobile tire cord, pressed paper, and cardboard.

History

Cotton was used for clothing in present-day Peru and Mexico perhaps as long as 5,000 years ago. Also, cotton was grown, spun, and woven in ancient India, China, Egypt, and Pakistan, around 3000 B.C.

Cotton is not native to Western Europe. Around A.D. 800, Arabic traders likely introduced cotton to Spaniards. By the fourteenth century, Mediterranean farmers were cultivating the cotton plant and shipping the fiber to the Netherlands for spinning and weaving. British innovations in the late 1700s include water-powered spinning machinery, a monumental improvement over hand-spinning. An American named Samuel Slater, who worked with British machinery, memorized the plans for a machine spinner and returned to Rhode Island to set up Slater Mill, the first American textile mill to utilize machine spinners. This mill represents the beginning of the U.S. Industrial Revolution, built on the mechanism of the cotton industry.

Two developments spurred the cultivation of American cotton: cotton spinners and the cotton gin. The cotton gin, developed by Eli Whitney in 1793, easily removed tenacious cottonseeds. Southern plantation owners began planting cotton as a result of these innovations, using enslaved labor for harvesting the cotton. Vigorous cotton cultivation in the South using enslaved labor is considered one reason for friction between North and South that led to the Civil War.

Southern cotton was shipped to New England mills in huge quantities. As a result of machine spinning, weaving, and printing, Americans could cheaply purchase calico and it became universally worn. However, labor costs were significant in New England. Mill owners found ways to reduce those costs, first by employing women and immigrants who were often paid poorly, then by employing young children in the factories. After oppressive labor practices were largely halted, many factories moved to the South where labor was cheaper. (Unionizing efforts affected the profits of those mills.) Today, a fair amount of cotton is woven outside the United States where labor is less costly. Polyester, a synthetic, is often used along with cotton, but has little chance of supplanting the natural fiber.

Raw Materials

The materials required to take cotton bolls to spun cotton include cottonseeds for planting; pesticides, such as insecticides, fungicides, and herbicides, to battle disease and harmful insects; and fertilizers to enrich the soil.

There are agricultural requirements for growing cotton in the United States. Cotton has a long growing season (it can be as long as seven months) so it is best to plant cotton early—February in Texas but as late as June in northern cotton-growing states such as Missouri. Cotton should not be planted before the sun has warmed the soil. It performs best in well-drained, crumbly soils that can hold moisture. It can be grown between latitudes of 30° north and 30° south. Good cotton crops require a long, sunny growing season with at least 160 frost-free days and high moisture levels resulting from rainfall or irrigation during the growing season. However, too much rain during harvest or strong winds during picking can damage the open bolls and load the fiber with too much water, which can ruin the cotton in storage. Generally, a cotton farmer must farm about 2,000 acres (20,000 hectares) if the operation is to be economically viable. On average, an acre will produce about 1.5 bales of cotton, or about 750 lb (340 kg).

The Production Process

1. In spring, the acreage is cleared for planting. Mechanical cultivators rip out weeds and grass that may compete with the cotton for soil nutrients, sunlight, and water, and may attract pests that harm cotton. The land is plowed under and soil is broken up and formed into rows.
2. Cottonseed is mechanically planted by machines that plant up to 12 rows at a time. The planter opens a small furrow in each row, drops in seed, covers them, and then packs more dirt on top. Seed may be deposited in either small clumps (referred to as hill-dropped) or singularly (called drilled). The seed is placed 0.75 to 1.25 in (1.9 to 3.2 cm) deep, depending on the climate. The seed must be placed more shallowly in dusty, cool areas of the Cotton Belt, and more deeply in warmer areas.
3. With good soil moisture and warm temperature at planting, seedlings usually emerge five to seven days after planting, with a full stand of cotton appearing after about 11 days. Occasionally disease sets in, delaying the seedlings' appearance. Also, a soil crust may prevent seedlings from surfacing. Thus, the crust must be carefully broken by machines or irrigation to permit the plants to emerge.
4. Approximately six weeks after seedlings appear, "squares," or flower buds, begin to form. The buds mature for three weeks and then blossom into creamy yellow flowers, which turn pink, then red, and then fall off just three days after blossoming. After the flower falls away, a tiny ovary is left on the cotton plant. This ovary ripens and enlarges into a green pod called a cotton boll.
5. The boll matures in a period that ranges from 55 to 80 days. During this time, the football-shaped boll grows and moist fibers push the newly formed seeds outward. As the boll ripens, it remains green. Fibers continue to expand under the warm sun, with each fiber growing to its full length—about 2.5 in (6.4 cm)—during three weeks. For nearly six weeks, the fibers get thicker and layers of cellulose build up the cell walls. Ten weeks after flowers first appeared, fibers split the boll apart, and cream-colored cotton pushes forth. The moist fibers dry in the sun and the fibers collapse and twist together, looking like ribbon. Each boll contains three to five "cells," each having about seven seeds embedded in the fiber.
6. At this point the cotton plant is defoliated if it is to be machine harvested. Defoliation (removing the leaves) is often accomplished by spraying the plant with a chemical. It is important that leaves not be harvested with the fiber because they are considered "trash" and must be removed at some point. In addition, removing the leaves minimizes staining the fiber and eliminates a source of excess moisture. Some American crops are naturally defoliated by frost, but at least half of the crops must be defoliated with chemicals. Without defoliation, the cotton must be picked by hand, with laborers clearing out the leaves as they work.
7. Harvesting is done by machine in the United States, with a single machine replacing 50 hand-pickers. Two mechanical systems are used to harvest cotton. The picker system uses wind and guides to pull the cotton from the plant, often leaving behind the leaves and rest of the plant. The stripper system chops the plant and uses air to separate the trash from the cotton. Most American cotton is harvested using pickers. Pickers must be used after the dew dries in the morning and must conclude when dew begins to form again at the end of the day. Moisture detectors are used to ensure that the moisture content is no higher than 12%, or the cotton may not be harvested and stored successfully. Not all cotton reaches maturity at the same time, and harvesting may occur in waves, with a second and third picking.
8. Next, most American cotton is stored in "modules," which hold 13-15 bales in water-resistant containers in the fields until they are ready to be ginned.
9. The cotton module is cleaned, compressed, tagged, and stored at the gin. The cotton is cleaned to separate dirt, seeds, and short lint from the cotton. At the gin, the cotton enters module feeders that fluff up the cotton before cleaning. Some gins use vacuum pipes to send fibers to cleaning equipment where trash is removed. After cleaning, cotton is sent to gin stands where revolving circular saws pull the fiber through wire ribs, thus separating seeds from the fiber. High-capacity gins can process 60, 500-lb (227-kg) bales of cotton per hour.
10. Cleaned and de-seeded cotton is then I 0 compressed into bales, which permits economical storage and transportation of cotton. The compressed bales are banded and wrapped. The wrapping may be either cotton or polypropylene, which maintains the proper moisture content of the cotton and keeps bales clean during storage and transportation.
11. Every bale of cotton produced in the United States must be given a gin ticket and a warehouse ticket. The gin ticket identifies the bale until it is woven. The ticket is a bar-coded tag that is torn off during inspection. A sample of each bale is sent to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for evaluation, where it is assessed for color, leaf content, strength, fineness, reflectance, fiber length, and trash content. The results of the evaluation determine the bale's value. Inspection results are available to potential buyers.
12. After inspection, bales are stored in a carefully controlled warehouse. The bales remain there until they are sold to a mill for further processing.

Quality Control

Cotton growing is a long, involved process and growers must understand the requirements of the plant and keep vigilant lookout for potential problems. Pests must be managed in order to yield high-quality crops; however, growers must use chemicals very carefully in order to prevent damage to the environment. Defoliants are often used to maximize yield and control fiber color. Farmers must carefully monitor moisture levels at harvesting so bales will not be ruined by excess water during storage. Soil tests are imperative, since too much nitrogen in the soil may attract certain pests to the cotton.

Expensive equipment such as cotton planters and harvesters must be carefully maintained. Mechanical planters must be set carefully to deposit seed at the right depth, and gauge wheels and shoes must be corrected to plant rows at the requisite spot. Similarly, improperly adjusted machinery spindles on harvesting machines will leave cotton on the spindle, lowering quality of the cotton and harvesting efficiency. A well-adjusted picker minimizes the amount of trash taken up, rendering cleaner cotton.

Byproducts/Waste

There is much discussion regarding the amount of chemicals used in cotton cultivation. Currently, it is estimated that growers use, on average, 5.3 oz (151 g) of chemicals to produce one pound of processed cotton. Cotton cultivation is responsible for 25% of all chemical pesticides used on American crops. Unfortunately, cotton attracts many pests (most notably the boll weevil) and is prone to a number of rots and spotting, and chemicals are used to keep these under control. There are concerns about wildlife poisoning and poisons that remain in the soil long after cotton is no longer grown (although no heavy metals are used in the chemicals). As a result, some farmers have turned to organic cotton growing. Organic farming utilizes biological control to rid cotton of pests and alters planting patterns in specific ways to reduce fungicide use. While this method of cultivation is possible, an organically grown crop generally yields less usable cotton. This means an organic farmer must purchase, plant, and harvest more acreage to yield enough processed cotton to make the crop lucrative, or reduce costs in other ways to turn a profit. Increasingly, state university extension services are working with cotton farmers to reduce chemical use by employing certain aspects of biological control in order to reduce toxins that remain in the land and flow into water systems.

Where to Learn More

Books

Daniel, Pete. Breaking the Land. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1987.

Johnson, Guinevere. Cotton. Let's Investigate Series. Mankato, MN: The Creative Co., 1999.

Other

The Cotton Pickin' Web. http://ipmwww.ncsu.edu/CottonPickin (January 2, 2001).

Land of Cotton Online Newsmagazine for the Cotton Industry. http://www.landofcotton.com (January 2, 2001).

National Cotton Council of America. Education Materials. http://www.cotton.org/ncc/education (January 2, 2001).

The Organic Cotton Site. http://www.sustainablecotton.org. (January 2, 2001).

[Article by: Nancy E.V. Bryk]

A fiber obtained from the cotton plant Gossypium, of the order Malvales. It has been used for more than 3000 years, and is the most widely used natural fiber, because of its versatility and comparatively low cost to produce and to manufacture into finished products. Cotton traditionally has been used alone in textile products, but blends with artificial fibers are also important. Chemically, cotton is essentially pure cellulose. The natural waxes occurring on the original fiber surface act as a finish which facilitates spinning. See also Cellulose; Malvales; Natural fiber.

To mature, cotton requires about 180 days of continuously warm weather with adequate moisture and sunlight; frost is harmful and may kill the plant. The plants begin to bloom about 4 months after planting. When the flowers fall off, seed pods grow and become cotton capsules or boils, which must be protected against the boll weevil or other insects. When fully grown, the boils burst, exposing the fleecy white fiber. When the raw cotton is harvested, it contains seeds, leaf fragments, and dirt that must be removed before baling. Cotton seeds alone constitute approximately two-thirds of the weight of the picked cotton.

After harvesting, the fiber, or lint as it is then called, is separated from the seed by gins. The lint is compressed into bales, covered with jute bagging, and bound with metal bands. After baling, the lint is sampled, graded, and sent to cotton mills, where the lint is blended, cleaned, carded, and spun into yams. In the oil mill processing industry, the cottonseed is separated into fuzz or linters, hulls, oil, and protein cake. Each of these products is converted to several subproducts.

The cotton plant is one of the world's major agricultural crops. It is grown in all countries lying within a wide band around the Earth. The limits of this band in the New World are at about 37°N latitude and at about 32°S latitude. In addition to the effects of latitude, suitability of climate for the growth of cotton is also regulated by elevation, wind belts, ocean currents, and mountain ranges. The regions of more intensive culture comprise the Cotton Belt of the United States, the northern valleys of Mexico, India, Pakistan, eastern China, central Asia, Australia, the Nile River valley, eastern Africa, South Africa, northeastern and southern Brazil, northern Argentina, and Peru. Within these regions and outlying districts, 44 countries report data on cotton production.

verb

1. To live or act together in harmony: get along, get on, harmonize. Idioms: hit it off. See agree/disagree.
2. To support slavishly every opinion or suggestion of a superior: bootlick, cringe, fawn, grovel, kowtow, slaver, toady, truckle. Informal apple-polish, brownnose. Slang suck up. Idioms: curry favor, dance attendance, kiss someone's feet, lick someone's boots. See over/under.

Although grown in the South since the founding of Jamestown in 1607, cotton did not become a cash crop during the colonial period, and most domestic production was consumed locally in domestic manufacture. By the late eighteenth century, revolutionary inventions in the English textile industry began the process that would transform the American South into the "cotton kingdom." John Kay's flying shuttle (patented 1733) and James Hargreaves's spinning jenny (patented 1770) speeded up weaving and spinning processes, and when these innovations were adapted first to water power and then to steam power, English textile production soared. Cotton imports into England increased fifty fold in the second half of the eighteenth century, but rising prices indicated that the cotton supply was failing to meet the spiraling demand of Lancashire's mills. When trade with England reopened after the Revolution (1783), American planters in the coastal areas of South Carolina and Georgia found a lucrative market for their long-staple, black-seed cotton. Further inland, only the short-staple (or uplands) variety would grow; and because its green seeds stuck so tenaciously to the staple, they had to be picked out by hand, a time-consuming process that even prevailing high prices could not support.

This all changed in 1793 when Eli Whitney invented his cotton gin, a device that quickly and cheaply separated the seeds from the staple. The new invention allowed Georgia and South Carolina planters to expand exponentially their production of the now-profitable short-staple cotton. Exports increased from 500,000 pounds in 1793 to 18 million pounds by 1800 and more than 90 million pounds a decade later. The cotton belt in Georgia and South Carolina rapidly expanded westward as farmers and planters pushed into the virgin lands in south-central Alabama; into the rich delta lands in Mississippi, northern Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee; and into western Texas. In 1860, the United States produced more than 2 billion pounds (4.5 million bales) of cotton, almost 80 percent of which came from the states of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. About 75 percent of this crop was exported, mainly to England where American cotton enjoyed a near monopoly.

Southerners proclaimed that "cotton was king," and indeed the evidence seemed to support this view. Cotton attracted millions of settlers into the Southwest; southern demand for foodstuffs helped bring population into the Old Northwest; eastern merchants found some of their best customers in the cotton belt; New England textile manufacturers and workers relied for their well-being on the South's chief export; and in the last three antebellum decades, cotton provided well over half the nation's exports.

Many small farmers grew cotton, but the most efficient and extensive producers were planters with gangs of slave labor. Planting began in early spring; slaves spent the long hot days of summer thinning the plants and chopping out menacing weeds; picking started in late August and continued for several months. Planters then ginned, pressed, and baled their cotton on the plantation before shipping it to market—usually New Orleans, Charleston, Savannah, or Mobile—typically consigning it to factors who sold it to representatives of American and European mills. Factors purchased supplies and other goods for their clients and then, after deducting expenses and commissions, remitted the net proceeds of the crop to the planter.

The Civil War proved the limits of king cotton's power. The Union blockade separated the South from its markets and sources of supply; and the British, despite the so-called cotton famine, neither recognized the South nor attempted to break the blockade. The war left most cotton farmers destitute, their fields and equipment in neglect or ruin, and their black labor force free. Gradually the South returned to cotton but under a greatly altered system of production and marketing. Land was rented out in small parcels, usually under the sharecropping system by which the tenant, in return for the right to use the land and some equipment, shared his crop with the landlord according to a fixed contract. For his supplies, food, and clothing, the sharecropper turned to a local storekeeper (called the "furnishing merchant"), who furnished goods on credit in return for a crop lien that gave him first call on the sharecropper's proceeds from the growing crop. At first recently freed slaves made up the vast majority of tenants, but in time more and more farmers themselves lost their land and became tenants. In 1880, 36 percent of cotton farmers were tenants; in 1920 this figure had risen to almost 50 percent; and in 1935 it had risen to over 60 percent. By the turn of the century, more whites than blacks were tenants.

Meanwhile, cotton production increased. Within a decade after the end of the Civil War, the prewar high of 4.5 million bales was equaled, and the output continued to grow, reaching 10 million bales by 1900 and 16 million bales on the eve of World War I. Acreage devoted to cotton increased from fewer than 8 million acres in 1869 to 25 million in 1900 and more than 35 million in 1914.

By this time there were signs of serious trouble in the southern cotton belt. Declining prices and production inefficiencies brought poverty and hardship to millions of cotton growers, a condition worsened By the boll weevil infestation that entered Texas in 1892 and gradually spread north and east, reaching Georgia and South Carolina in 1922. The United States lost its complete domination of the raw cotton markets as countries such as India,

China, the Soviet Union, and Brazil increased their production. Rich, irrigated lands in the western states of California, Arizona, and New Mexico were shifted to cotton production; and these areas—free from the uncertainties of weather, the boll weevil, and weed infestation—offered disastrous competition to the older cotton areas. With the Great Depression, cotton prices dropped still lower and conditions reached crisis proportions.

Once again change came to the cotton belt. Cotton acreage, which had reached a high of almost 45 million in 1925, dropped to half that total in the immediate post–World War II years and continued to drop, reaching about 11 million in 1971. Production also declined but at a much slower rate. While acreage devoted to cotton dropped 75 percent from the mid-1920s to 1972, production decreased only about 30 percent, from 16 million to 11 million bales. As marginal lands shifted away from cotton, production on better lands became mechanized and more efficient with the introduction of tractors, plows, weeders, and automatic pickers. Sharecroppers fled the cotton fields or were driven away by the introduction of machinery; output per man-hour on the mechanized cotton farms increased nine times between 1940 and 1973. The eastern cotton states became minor producers as the cotton belt shifted west. In 1970, Texas was the largest producer, followed by Mississippi, California, and Arkansas; and Arizona grew more cotton than did Alabama, Georgia, and the Carolinas.

Although the United States remained the world's leading cotton producer in 1970, its onetime near monopoly was gone. By the early 1960s its share of world production had dropped to less than 30 percent, and by 1971, to 19 percent. Moreover, cotton growers, despite increasing efficiency and ample government price supports, apprehensively faced a new threat in the increasing popularity of man-made fibers. Per capita consumption of cotton in the United States fell from 30 pounds in 1950 to less than 19 pounds in 1970, while per capita consumption of artificial fibers rose from 10 pounds to 32 pounds during the same period. Despite these threats to the continued vitality of the industry, the United States recovered its position somewhat in the 1980s and 1990s, accounting for 25 to 30 percent of the world trade in raw cotton by 2000. Although China passed America to become the world's leading producer, the United States remained the world's largest exporter of the fiber, which despite its decline, still contributed over $25 billion annually in goods and services to the American economy at the end of the century.

Cotton Manufacturing

The processing of raw cotton by modern methods begins with the breaking of compressed bales (average weight 478 pounds). Bale breakers, openers, and pickers loosen and blend the tufts of cotton and remove impurities. Carding engines complete the cleaning process, eliminate short and broken fibers, and separate and align those remaining into soft, ropelike "slivers." To obtain high-quality yarn, combers process fine (thin) cotton into slivers, removing as much as 20 percent of the shorter fibers. Drawing frames begin the process of attenuating and twisting the slivers and enhance their regularity by drawing them between rollers and arranging them in parallel rows. A series of machines collectively known as "speed frames" conclude the preparation of cotton for the spinning frames, principally by further drawing out and twisting the material into a rope called "roving" and adding strength to the fibers by making them cling to each other more closely. In the spinning stage, frames equipped with ring spindles draw and twist the fibers into yarn while winding them on a bobbin. The process is continuous, with drawing, twisting, and winding taking place simultaneously. During the preparatory and spinning processes cotton suffers a loss in weight of 9–12 percent. In comparison, man-made filament fibers spun into yarn on cotton textile machinery incur a negligible loss. Approximately two thirds of man-made fibers come from chemical producers already processed as filament yarn.

Machines then process cotton yarns into fabrics by knitting, tufting, and weaving. Knitting consists essentially of interlacing a single strand of yarn into a series of interlocking loops. Modern knitting mills produce literally hundreds of items of cotton and cotton-blended apparel. They Also convert considerable quantities of cotton yarn into a variety of tufted products on tufting machines and consume them in various nonwoven constructions, in which machines bond fibers together with adhesives. Manufacturers continue to channel the greatest proportion of cotton yarn into broadloom weaving, where additional preparation is required depending on whether it is destined to be warp (longitudinal) or weft (transverse) yarn. Weaving, conducted on high-speed automatic looms, involves the interlacing of yarn at right angles so as to form a fabric.

Upon leaving the weave shed, most unbleached gray goods undergo one of many finishing treatments. Initially, the fabric passes in succession through a series of scouring, washing, and bleaching units before being dyed and printed. Textile engineers have developed a wide range of mechanical and chemical processes to render the fabric more useful and fashionable. Mechanical processes can stiffen, glaze, and improve the texture of the cloth. Chemistry can also provide additional strength, such as fire retardance and abrasion and wind resistance, or it can impart various qualities desirable in apparel, such as permanent press, crease resistance, and shrinkage control, as well as a silk like sheen and the puckering quality of seersucker.

Industry Changes

The breakdown of major end-uses for all fibers reflects the eroding role of cotton in the American textile industry from the mid-1960s to the end of the twentieth century. Between 1968 and 1973, for example, cotton's percentage of total poundage in apparel dropped from 45 to 33 percent; in home furnishings, from 45 to 29 percent; in other consumer-type products, from 45 to 29 percent; and in industrial uses, from 32 to 21 percent. Aggregate cotton consumption by U.S. mills in 1973 amounted to 3,641,700,000 pounds (29.2 percent of total fiber consumption) compared to 3,773,600,000 pounds consumed in 1970 (39.5 percent of total fiber consumption).

During the 1960s the American textile industry be-came increasingly multifiber. The versatility of modern textile technology permitted the processing of cotton, cotton-synthetic blends, and various man-made fibers without requiring a change in machinery layout. In addition, both capital and labor requirements fell as faster and larger-capacity equipment reduced both the number of machines and the number of operatives and maintenance workers needed for a given output. A small number of large, multiplant firms thus account for a high proportion of capital expenditures for plant and equipment as well as for most textile research. During the 1958–1970 period, capital expenditures for the textile industry as a whole increased at an 11.3 percent annual rate. For knit fabric mills the annual rate was 23 percent; for cotton broadloom weaving establishments, on the other hand, the rate was only 3.7 percent per annum.

The new textile technology flourished primarily in the sprawling, single-story structures dotting the southeastern United States, where large pools of white and black female labor are readily available in hundreds of small communities. At the same time, the trend toward technological modernization has hastened the obsolescence of the aged, multistory mills that predominated in New England. By 1970 three-fourths of cotton textile employment was concentrated in the Southeast. Blue-collar occupations—primarily semi-skilled machine tending—constituted 85 percent of textile employment, a smaller share of jobs going to professional, research, clerical, and sales personnel than in most manufacturing industries. Women workers made up more than 65 percent of the employees in knitting mills but only 25 percent of the employees in textile-finishing establishments.

Although cotton manufacturing remains more fragmented and highly competitive than most industries, a trend toward fewer and larger firms is taking place; numerous mergers and acquisitions were effected during the 1960s, and Many small mills shut down. By 1970, the four largest establishments making cotton broadwoven fabric accounted for 33 percent of total industry value of shipments (compared with 13 percent in 1947), while the eight largest firms accounted for 50 percent of the value of broadwoven shipments (compared to 22 percent in 1947). In the 1980s and 1990s, pressures on the textile industry increased as expanded foreign production cut into the U.S. industry's export profits. Then, in the late 1990s, a 40 percent decline in the average worth of Asian currencies, coupled with a 25 to 30 percent decline in the price of Asian yarn and fabric exports, sent the American industry into a crisis. In 1996 alone over 100 U.S. textile mills closed, taking over 60,000 jobs with them. The industry responded by pressuring the national government to help it open new overseas markets and by turning to newer, more efficient production technologies to reduce production costs.

Bibliography

Gray, Lewis C. History of Agriculture in the Southern United States to 1860. Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith, 1958.

Holley, Donald. The Second Great Emancipation: The Mechanical Cotton Picker, Black Migration, and How They Shaped the Modern South. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2000.

Kane, Nancy F. Textiles in Transition: Technology, Wages, and Industry Relocation in the U.S. Textile Industry, 1880–1930. New York: Greenwood Press, 1988.

Woodman, Harold D. King Cotton and His Retainers. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1968.

—Jack Blicksilver/C. W.

A valued fiber crop.

An important fiber crop in the Middle East from the early Islamic period onward, cotton acquired new significance in the nineteenth century as the region's paramount export crop and most important raw material link to the world of European industrial capitalism. Egypt took pride of place in the development of the cotton industry as the earliest and long the largest producer of cotton for export. Traditionally, Egyptians had grown several different short-fiber varieties for domestic use, but under Muhammad Ali the government experimented with a locally discovered long-fiber variety of the sort preferred by European textile manufacturers. The first large harvest, overseen at every stage by experts from Syria and Anatolia, was realized in 1822. It brought a good price in Europe, where specialists appraised it as second in quality only to American Sea Island cotton from Georgia.

Poor agricultural practices and quality control, stemming partly from the Egyptian government monopoly's reluctance to reward peasant farmers
for following the advice of the experts, led to a decline after initial success. After the mid-1830s, the frustration of Muhammad Ali's ambitious industrialization efforts, which had included textile factories for producing military uniforms, contributed to the decline. Recovery was unexpectedly prompted by the American Civil War, which made it difficult for European mill owners to acquire high-quality raw materials. Exports soared from 25,000 tons, the plateau reached in the 1850s, to 125,000 tons in 1865. After a postwar readjustment, exports resumed their increase, hitting a record 374,000 tons in 1910. By that time, cotton, to which almost a quarter of all cropped land was dedicated, accounted for 80.1 percent of Egypt's total exports, up from 66.6 percent in 1884. Later, nationalist critics charged the British, in control of Egypt since 1882, with turning the country into a giant cotton farm for the benefit of British manufacturers.

The American Civil War stimulated cotton exports from Syria and Anatolia, as well, but the post-war slump in prices drove production back down. Iran, too, shared in the wartime boom; but there the postwar fall in prices was eventually countered by a twelvefold expansion in general trade with Russia, particularly from the 1880s on. By World War I, Russia received 70 percent of Iranian exports, with cotton the most important product. Volume was 25,000 metric tons in 1913, amounting to some 95 percent of all cotton exports. In the 1930s, the Iranian government entered on an industrialization drive that increasingly exploited cotton for domestic manufacturing. By the end of the decade, production had grown to 38,000 metric tons, of which only one-seventh was being exported; and Iranian mills were supplying half the domestic market for cotton cloth.

Cotton developed as the major cash crop of the Sudan from 1925 onward with the development of new irrigation projects. Turkish production expanded after World War I and boomed in the 1950s when the Korean War raised world commodity prices. The same circumstances turned cotton into Syria's biggest cash crop. Israeli and Afghan production expanded in the 1960s, much of the latter country's cotton being destined for export to the Soviet Union. By the late 1970s, 11.6 percent of the world's cotton production came from the Middle East, and the region encompassed 7 percent of the total world acreage devoted to cotton. The largest outputs, in thousands of metric tons, were those of Turkey (522), Iran (490), Egypt (413), Sudan (166), Syria (150), Israel (65), and Afghanistan (50). Much smaller amounts were produced in Morocco, Iraq, Jordan, and Yemen.

Cotton is the fabric of choice for clothing in much of the Middle East. Its lightness and absorbency particularly suit it to hot climates. Terms of Middle Eastern origin pertaining to types of cotton cloth - damask from Damascus, gauze from Gaza - testify to the long history of cotton textiles and are a reminder of a time when many cities of the area were known for their distinctive weaves and patterns. The transition from handwoven cotton fabrics to factory-made products initially favored the export of raw fiber and the import of inexpensive finished goods. This led, in turn, to disarray in the domestic textile industry, largely based on small workshops. Though tens of thousands of workers were still using handlooms at the end of World War I, and such distinctive local fabrics as the block-printed cottons of Iran and the embroidered tablecloths of Damascus survive to this day as choice products of national handicraft industries, most cotton textile production now takes place in modern spinning and weaving mills.

In 1977 the region produced 500,000 metric tons of cotton yarn, with the highest output from Egypt, Turkey, and Syria. It also produced 2,640 million square meters of cotton fabric, with production concentrated most heavily in Egypt, Iran, and Syria. These figures represent approximately 5 percent of total world production from a region then comprising roughly the same proportion of the world's population.

Bibliography

Issawi, Charles. An Economic History of the Middle East and NorthAfrica. New York: Columbia University Press, 1982.

Owen, E. R. J. Cotton and the Egyptian Economy, 1820 - 1914: A Study in Trade and Development. Oxford: Clarendon, 1969.

Rivlin, Helen Anne B. The Agricultural Policy of Muhammad Ali in Egypt. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1961.

Tignor, Robert L. Modernization and British Colonial Rule inEgypt, 1882 - 1914. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1966.

— RICHARD W. BULLIET

LearnThatWord.com is a free vocabulary and spelling program where you only pay for results!

• Fabrics and Cloth - cotton: soft, white, absorbent fabric woven from fibrous hairs of cotton plant
• Farming and Crops - cotton: most important textile fiber, produced from seed pods of shrubby tropical plant
• Paraphernalia and Behavior - cotton: cotton filter for straining cooked heroin prior to injection

For other uses, see Cotton (disambiguation).

Cotton
History of cotton
Terms
Cash crop Commodity Cottonopolis Cotton Belt Cotton diplomacy King Cotton
Types
Gossypium hirsutum Gossypium barbadense Gossypium arboreum Gossypium herbaceum Organic cotton
Production
Cotton-spinning machinery Cotton gin Cotton mill Cotton picker Mercerised cotton Spinning jenny Spinning mule Spinning wheel Water frame
Fabric
Cambric Corduroy Denim Seersucker Terrycloth
v t e

Picking cotton in Oklahoma, USA, in the 1890s

Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal.

The plant is a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, Africa, and India. The greatest diversity of wild cotton species is found in Mexico, followed by Australia and Africa.^[1] Cotton was independently domesticated in the Old and New Worlds. The English name derives from the Arabic (al) qutn قُطْن, which began to be used circa 1400 AD.^[2]

The fiber is most often spun into yarn or thread and used to make a soft, breathable textile. The use of cotton for fabric is known to date to prehistoric times; fragments of cotton fabric dated from 5000 BC have been excavated in Mexico and Pakistan. Although cultivated since antiquity, it was the invention of the cotton gin that so lowered the cost of production that led to its widespread use, and it is the most widely used natural fiber cloth in clothing today.

Current estimates for world production are about 25 million tonnes annually, accounting for 2.5% of the world's arable land. China is the world's largest producer of cotton, but most of this is used domestically. The United States has been the largest exporter for many years.^[3]

Contents 1 Types of cotton 2 History 2.1 Industrial Revolution in Britain 2.2 Tangüis cotton 3 Cultivation 3.1 Genetic modification 3.2 Organic production 4 Pests and weeds 5 Harvesting 6 Competition from synthetic fibers 7 Uses 8 International trade 8.1 Leading producer countries 8.2 Fair trade 8.3 Trade 9 Critical temperatures 10 British standard yarn measures 11 Fiber properties 12 Cotton genome 13 See also 14 References 15 Further reading 16 External links

Types of cotton

There are four commercially-grown species of cotton, all domesticated in antiquity:

• Gossypium hirsutum – upland cotton, native to Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean and southern Florida, (90% of world production)
• Gossypium barbadense – known as extra-long staple cotton, native to tropical South America (8% of world production)
• Gossypium arboreum – tree cotton, native to India and Pakistan (less than 2%)
• Gossypium herbaceum – Levant cotton, native to southern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula (less than 2%)

The two New World cotton species account for the vast majority of modern cotton production, but the two Old World species were widely used before the 1900s. While cotton fibers occur naturally in colors of white, brown, and green, fears of contaminating the genetics of white cotton have led many cotton-growing locations to ban growing of colored cotton varieties which remain a specialty product.

History

Main article: History of cotton

Cotton plants as imagined and drawn by John Mandeville in the 14th century

Cotton was first cultivated in the Old World 7,000 years ago (5th millennium BC), by the inhabitants of western Pakistan, for example as the site of Mehrgarh where early cotton thread has been preserved in copper beads.^[4] Cotton cultivation became more widespread during the Indus Valley Civilization, which covered a huge swath of the northwestern part of the South Asia, comprising today parts of eastern Pakistan and northwestern India.^[5] The Indus cotton industry was well developed and some methods used in cotton spinning and fabrication continued to be used until the modern industrialization of India.^[6] Between 2000 and 1000 BC cotton became widespread in much of India.^[7] For example, it has been found at the site of Hallus in Karnataka around 1000 BC. Well before the Common Era, the use of cotton textiles had spread from India to the Mediterranean and beyond.^[8]

Cotton fabrics discovered in a cave near Tehuacán, Mexico have been dated to around 5800 BC, although it is difficult to know for certain due to fiber decay.^[9] Other sources date the domestication of cotton in Mexico to approximately 5000 to 3000 BC.^[10]

The Greeks and the Arabs were not familiar with cotton until the Wars of Alexander the Great, as his contemporary Megasthenes told Seleucus I Nicator of "there being trees on which wool grows" in "Indica".

According to the Columbia Encyclopedia:^[8]

Cotton has been spun, woven, and dyed since prehistoric times. It clothed the people of ancient India, Egypt, and China. Hundreds of years before the Christian era, cotton textiles were woven in India with matchless skill, and their use spread to the Mediterranean countries.

In Iran (Persia), the history of cotton dates back to the Achaemenid era (5th century BC); however, there are few sources about the planting of cotton in pre-Islamic Iran. The planting of cotton was common in Merv, Ray and Pars of Iran. In the poems of Persian poets, especially Ferdowsi's Shahname, there are references to cotton ("panbe" in Persian). Marco Polo (13th century) refers to the major products of Persia, including cotton. John Chardin, a French traveler of 17th century, who had visited the Safavid Persia, has approved the vast cotton farms of Persia.^[11]

During the Han dynasty, cotton was grown by non Chinese peoples in the southern Chinese province of Yunnan.^[12]

In Peru, cultivation of the indigenous cotton species Gossypium barbadense was the backbone of the development of coastal cultures, such as the Norte Chico, Moche and Nazca. Cotton was grown upriver, made into nets and traded with fishing villages along the coast for large supplies of fish. The Spanish who came to Mexico and Peru in the early 16th century found the people growing cotton and wearing clothing made of it.

During the late medieval period, cotton became known as an imported fiber in northern Europe, without any knowledge of how it was derived, other than that it was a plant; noting its similarities to wool, people in the region could only imagine that cotton must be produced by plant-borne sheep. John Mandeville, writing in 1350, stated as fact the now-preposterous belief: "There grew there [India] a wonderful tree which bore tiny lambs on the endes of its branches. These branches were so pliable that they bent down to allow the lambs to feed when they are hungrie [sic]." (See Vegetable Lamb of Tartary.) This aspect is retained in the name for cotton in many European languages, such as German Baumwolle, which translates as "tree wool" (Baum means "tree"; Wolle means "wool"). By the end of the 16th century, cotton was cultivated throughout the warmer regions in Asia and the Americas.

The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary

India's cotton-processing sector gradually declined during British expansion in India and the establishment of colonial rule during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. This was largely due to aggressive colonialist mercantile policies of the British East India Company, which made cotton processing and manufacturing workshops in India uncompetitive. Indian markets were increasingly forced to supply only raw cotton and were forced, by British-imposed law, to purchase manufactured textiles from Britain.

Industrial Revolution in Britain

The advent of the Industrial Revolution in Britain provided a great boost to cotton manufacture, as textiles emerged as Britain's leading export. In 1738, Lewis Paul and John Wyatt, of Birmingham, England, patented the roller spinning machine, and the flyer-and-bobbin system for drawing cotton to a more even thickness using two sets of rollers that traveled at different speeds. Later, the invention of the spinning jenny in 1764 and Richard Arkwright's spinning frame (based on the roller spinning machine) in 1769 enabled British weavers to produce cotton yarn and cloth at much higher rates. From the late 18th century onwards, the British city of Manchester acquired the nickname "Cottonopolis" due to the cotton industry's omnipresence within the city, and Manchester's role as the heart of the global cotton trade. Production capacity in Britain and the United States was improved by the invention of the cotton gin by the American Eli Whitney in 1793. Improving technology and increasing control of world markets allowed British traders to develop a commercial chain in which raw cotton fibers were (at first) purchased from colonial plantations, processed into cotton cloth in the mills of Lancashire, and then exported on British ships to captive colonial markets in West Africa, India, and China (via Shanghai and Hong Kong).

By the 1840s, India was no longer capable of supplying the vast quantities of cotton fibers needed by mechanized British factories, while shipping bulky, low-price cotton from India to Britain was time-consuming and expensive. This, coupled with the emergence of American cotton as a superior type (due to the longer, stronger fibers of the two domesticated native American species, Gossypium hirsutum and Gossypium barbadense), encouraged British traders to purchase cotton from plantations in the United States and the Caribbean. By the mid-19th century, "King Cotton" had become the backbone of the southern American economy. In the United States, cultivating and harvesting cotton became the leading occupation of slaves.

During the American Civil War, American cotton exports slumped due to a Union blockade on Southern ports, also because of a strategic decision by the Confederate government to cut exports, hoping to force Britain to recognize the Confederacy or enter the war, prompting the main purchasers of cotton, Britain and France to turn to Egyptian cotton. British and French traders invested heavily in cotton plantations and the Egyptian government of Viceroy Isma'il took out substantial loans from European bankers and stock exchanges. After the American Civil War ended in 1865, British and French traders abandoned Egyptian cotton and returned to cheap American exports, sending Egypt into a deficit spiral that led to the country declaring bankruptcy in 1876, a key factor behind Egypt's occupation by the British Empire in 1882.

Prisoners farming cotton under the trusty system in Parchman Farm, Mississippi, 1911

Picking cotton in Georgia, United States, in 1943

During this time, cotton cultivation in the British Empire, especially India, greatly increased to replace the lost production of the American South. Through tariffs and other restrictions, the British government discouraged the production of cotton cloth in India; rather, the raw fiber was sent to England for processing. The Indian Mahatma Gandhi described the process:

1. English people buy Indian cotton in the field, picked by Indian labor at seven cents a day, through an optional monopoly.
2. This cotton is shipped on British ships, a three-week journey across the Indian Ocean, down the Red Sea, across the Mediterranean, through Gibraltar, across the Bay of Biscay and the Atlantic Ocean to London. One hundred per cent profit on this freight is regarded as small.
3. The cotton is turned into cloth in Lancashire. You pay shilling wages instead of Indian pennies to your workers. The English worker not only has the advantage of better wages, but the steel companies of England get the profit of building the factories and machines. Wages; profits; all these are spent in England.
4. The finished product is sent back to India at European shipping rates, once again on British ships. The captains, officers, sailors of these ships, whose wages must be paid, are English. The only Indians who profit are a few lascars who do the dirty work on the boats for a few cents a day.
5. The cloth is finally sold back to the kings and landlords of India who got the money to buy this expensive cloth out of the poor peasants of India who worked at seven cents a day. (Fisher 1932 pp 154–156)

In the United States, Southern cotton provided capital for the continuing development of the North. The cotton produced by enslaved African Americans not only helped the South, but also enriched Northern merchants. Much of the Southern cotton was transshipped through the northern ports.

Cotton remained a key crop in the Southern economy after emancipation and the end of the Civil War in 1865. Across the South, sharecropping evolved, in which free black farmers and landless white farmers worked on white-owned cotton plantations of the wealthy in return for a share of the profits. Cotton plantations required vast labor forces to hand-pick cotton, and it was not until the 1950s that reliable harvesting machinery was introduced into the South (prior to this, cotton-harvesting machinery had been too clumsy to pick cotton without shredding the fibers). During the early 20th century, employment in the cotton industry fell, as machines began to replace laborers, and the South's rural labor force dwindled during the First and Second World Wars. Today, cotton remains a major export of the southern United States, and a majority of the world's annual cotton crop is of the long-staple American variety.^[13]

Tangüis cotton

Main article: Fermín Tangüis

Fermín Tangüis poses with an example of the "Tangüis cotton"

In 1901, Peru's cotton industry suffered because of a fungus plague caused by a plant disease known as "cotton wilt" (more correctly, "fusarium wilt") caused by the fungus Fusarium vasinfectum.^[14] The plant disease, which spread throughout Peru, entered plant's roots and worked its way up the stem until the plant was completely dried up. Fermín Tangüis, a Puerto Rican agriculturist who lived in Peru, studied some species of the plant that were affected by the disease to a lesser extent and experimented in germination with the seeds of various cotton plants. In 1911, after 10 years of experimenting and failures, Tangüis was able to develop a seed which produced a superior cotton plant resistant to the disease. The seeds produced a plant that had a 40% longer (between 29 mm and 33 mm) and thicker fiber that did not break easily and required little water.^[15] The Tangüis cotton, as it became known, is the variety which is preferred by the Peruvian national textile industry. It constituted 75% of all the Peruvian cotton production, both for domestic use and apparel exports. The Tangüis cotton crop was estimated at 225,000 bales that year.^[16]

Cultivation

Cotton plowing in Togo, 1928

Picking cotton in Armenia in the 1930's. No cotton is grown there today.

Cotton ready for shipment, Houston, Texas (postcard, circa 1911)

Harvested cotton in Tennessee (2006)

Cotton modules in Australia (2007)

Successful cultivation of cotton requires a long frost-free period, plenty of sunshine, and a moderate rainfall, usually from 600 to 1200 mm (24 to 48 inches). Soils usually need to be fairly heavy, although the level of nutrients does not need to be exceptional. In general, these conditions are met within the seasonally dry tropics and subtropics in the Northern and Southern hemispheres, but a large proportion of the cotton grown today is cultivated in areas with less rainfall that obtain the water from irrigation. Production of the crop for a given year usually starts soon after harvesting the preceding autumn. Planting time in spring in the Northern hemisphere varies from the beginning of February to the beginning of June. The area of the United States known as the South Plains is the largest contiguous cotton-growing region in the world. While dryland (non-irrigated) cotton is successfully grown in this region, consistent yields are only produced with heavy reliance on irrigation water drawn from the Ogallala Aquifer. Since cotton is somewhat salt and drought tolerant, this makes it an attractive crop for arid and semiarid regions. As water resources get tighter around the world, economies that rely on it face difficulties and conflict, as well as potential environmental problems.^{[17][18][19][20][21]} For example, improper cropping and irrigation practices have led to desertification in areas of Uzbekistan, where cotton is a major export. In the days of the Soviet Union, the Aral Sea was tapped for agricultural irrigation, largely of cotton, and now salination is widespread.^[20][21]

Cotton can also be cultivated to have colors other than the yellowish off-white typical of modern commercial cotton fibers. Naturally colored cotton can come in red, green, and several shades of brown.^[22]

Genetic modification

Genetically modified (GM) cotton was developed to reduce the heavy reliance on pesticides. The bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) naturally produces a chemical harmful only to a small fraction of insects, most notably the larvae of moths and butterflies, beetles, and flies, and harmless to other forms of life. The gene coding for Bt toxin has been inserted into cotton, causing cotton to produce this natural insecticide in its tissues. In many regions, the main pests in commercial cotton are lepidopteran larvae, which are killed by the Bt protein in the transgenic cotton they eat. This eliminates the need to use large amounts of broad-spectrum insecticides to kill lepidopteran pests (some of which have developed pyrethroid resistance). This spares natural insect predators in the farm ecology and further contributes to noninsecticide pest management.

Bt cotton is ineffective against many cotton pests, however, such as plant bugs, stink bugs, and aphids; depending on circumstances it may still be desirable to use insecticides against these. A 2006 study done by Cornell researchers, the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy and the Chinese Academy of Science on Bt cotton farming in China found that after seven years these secondary pests that were normally controlled by pesticide had increased, necessitating the use of pesticides at similar levels to non-Bt cotton and causing less profit for farmers because of the extra expense of GM seeds.^[23] However a more recent 2009 study by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Stanford University and Rutgers University refutes this.^[24] They concluded that the GM cotton effectively controlled bollworm. The secondary pests were mostly miridae (plant bugs) whose increase was related to local temperature and rainfall and only continued to increase in half the villages studied. Moreover, the increase in insecticide use for the control of these secondary insects was far smaller than the reduction in total insecticide use due to Bt cotton adoption. The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) said that, worldwide, GM cotton was planted on an area of 16 million hectares in 2009.^[25] This was 49% of the worldwide total area planted in cotton. The U.S. cotton crop was 93% GM in 2010^[26] and the Chinese cotton crop was 68% GM in 2009.^[27]

The initial introduction of GM cotton proved to be a success in Australia – the yields were equivalent to the no transgenic varieties and the crop used much less pesticide to produce (85% reduction).^[28] The subsequent introduction of a second variety of GM cotton led to increases in GM cotton production until 95% of the Australian cotton crop was GM in 2009.^[25]

Cotton has mainly been genetically modified for resistance to glyphosate (marketed as Roundup in North America) a broad-spectrum herbicide sold by Monsanto, the same company that sells some of the Bt cotton seeds to farmers.^[29] There are now a number of different cotton seed companies selling GE cotton around the world. Farmers buy new seed every year under a licensing agreement between the farmer and the company that has created the GE cotton.^{[citation needed]}

GM cotton acreage in India continues to grow at a rapid rate, increasing from 50,000 hectares in 2002 to 8.4 million hectares in 2009. The total cotton area in India was 9.6 million hectares (the largest in the world or, about 35% of world cotton area), so GM cotton was grown on 87% of the cotton area in 2009.^[27] This makes India the country with the largest area of GM cotton in the world, surpassing China (3.7 million hectares in 2009).

Cotton has gossypol, a toxin that makes it inedible. However, scientists have silenced the gene that produces the toxin, making it a potential food crop.^[30]

Organic production

Organic cotton is generally understood as cotton, from plants not genetically modified, that is certified to be grown without the use of any synthetic agricultural chemicals, such as fertilizers or pesticides.^[31] Its production also promotes and enhances biodiversity and biological cycles.^[32] United States cotton plantations are required to enforce the National Organic Program (NOP). This institution determines the allowed practices for pest control, growing, fertilizing, and handling of organic crops.^[33][34] As of 2007, 265,517 bales of organic cotton were produced in 24 countries, and worldwide production was growing at a rate of more than 50% per year.^[35]

Pests and weeds

Main article: List of cotton diseases

Hoeing a cotton field to remove weeds, Greene County, Georgia, USA, 1941

Female and nymph Cotton Harlequin Bug

The cotton industry relies heavily on chemicals, such as herbicides, fertilizers and insecticides, although a very small number of farmers are moving toward an organic model of production, and organic cotton products are now available for purchase at limited locations. These are popular for baby clothes and diapers. Under most definitions, organic products do not use genetic engineering.

Historically, in North America, one of the most economically destructive pests in cotton production has been the boll weevil. Due to the US Department of Agriculture's highly successful Boll Weevil Eradication Program (BWEP), this pest has been eliminated from cotton in most of the United States. This program, along with the introduction of genetically engineered Bt cotton (which contains a bacterial gene that codes for a plant-produced protein that is toxic to a number of pests such as cotton bollworm and pink bollworm), has allowed a reduction in the use of synthetic insecticides.

Other significant global pests of cotton include the pink bollworm, Pectinophora gossypiella; the chili thrips, Scirtothrips dorsalis; the cotton seed bug, Oxycarenus hyalinipennis; the tarnish plant bug, Lygus lineolaris; and the fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda.

Harvesting

Offloading freshly harvested cotton into a module builder in Texas; previously built modules can be seen in the background

Cotton being picked by hand in India, 2005.

Most cotton in the United States, Europe, and Australia is harvested mechanically, either by a cotton picker, a machine that removes the cotton from the boll without damaging the cotton plant, or by a cotton stripper, which strips the entire boll off the plant. Cotton strippers are used in regions where it is too windy to grow picker varieties of cotton, and usually after application of a chemical defoliant or the natural defoliation that occurs after a freeze. Cotton is a perennial crop in the tropics, and without defoliation or freezing, the plant will continue to grow.

Cotton continues to be picked by hand in developing countries.^[36]

Competition from synthetic fibers

The era of manufactured fibers began with the development of rayon in France in the 1890s. Rayon is derived from a natural cellulose and cannot be considered synthetic, but requires extensive processing in a manufacturing process, and led the less expensive replacement of more naturally derived materials. A succession of new synthetic fibers were introduced by the chemicals industry in the following decades. Acetate in fiber form was developed in 1924. Nylon, the first fiber synthesized entirely from petrochemicals, was introduced as a sewing thread by DuPont in 1936, followed by DuPont's acrylic in 1944. Some garments were created from fabrics based on these fibers, such as women's hosiery from nylon, but it was not until the introduction of polyester into the fiber marketplace in the early 1950s that the market for cotton came under threat.^[37] The rapid uptake of polyester garments in the 1960s caused economic hardship in cotton-exporting economies, especially in Central American countries, such as Nicaragua, where cotton production had boomed tenfold between 1950 and 1965 with the advent of cheap chemical pesticides. Cotton production recovered in the 1970s, but crashed to pre-1960 levels in the early 1990s.^[38]

Beginning as a self-help program in the mid-1960s, the Cotton Research and Promotion Program (CRPP) was organized by U.S. cotton producers in response to cotton's steady decline in market share. At that time, producers voted to set up a per-bale assessment system to fund the program, with built-in safeguards to protect their investments. With the passage of the Cotton Research and Promotion Act of 1966, the program joined forces and began battling synthetic competitors and re-establishing markets for cotton. Today, the success of this program has made cotton the best-selling fiber in the U.S. and one of the best-selling fibers in the world.

Administered by the Cotton Board and conducted by Cotton Incorporated, the CRPP works to greatly increase the demand for and profitability of cotton through various research and promotion activities. It is funded by U.S. cotton producers and importers.

Uses

A display from a British cotton manufacturer of items used in a cotton mill during the Industrial Revolution.

Cotton is used to make a number of textile products. These include terrycloth for highly absorbent bath towels and robes; denim for blue jeans; cambric, popularly used in the manufacture of blue work shirts (from which we get the term "blue-collar"); and corduroy, seersucker, and cotton twill. Socks, underwear, and most T-shirts are made from cotton. Bed sheets often are made from cotton. Cotton also is used to make yarn used in crochet and knitting. Fabric also can be made from recycled or recovered cotton that otherwise would be thrown away during the spinning, weaving, or cutting process. While many fabrics are made completely of cotton, some materials blend cotton with other fibers, including rayon and synthetic fibers such as polyester. It can either be used in knitted or woven fabrics, as it can be blended with elastine to make a stretchier thread for knitted fabrics, and apparel such as stretch jeans.

In addition to the textile industry, cotton is used in fishing nets, coffee filters, tents, explosives manufacture (see nitrocellulose), cotton paper, and in bookbinding. The first Chinese paper was made of cotton fiber. Fire hoses were once made of cotton.

The cottonseed which remains after the cotton is ginned is used to produce cottonseed oil, which, after refining, can be consumed by humans like any other vegetable oil. The cottonseed meal that is left generally is fed to ruminant livestock; the gossypol remaining in the meal is toxic to monogastric animals. Cottonseed hulls can be added to dairy cattle rations for roughage. During the American slavery period, cotton root bark was used in folk remedies as an abortifacient, that is, to induce a miscarriage.^[39]

Cotton linters are fine, silky fibers which adhere to the seeds of the cotton plant after ginning. These curly fibers typically are less than 1/8 in (3 mm) long. The term also may apply to the longer textile fiber staple lint as well as the shorter fuzzy fibers from some upland species. Linters are traditionally used in the manufacture of paper and as a raw material in the manufacture of cellulose. In the UK, linters are referred to as "cotton wool". This can also be a refined product (absorbent cotton in U.S. usage) which has medical, cosmetic and many other practical uses. The first medical use of cotton wool was by Dr. Joseph Sampson Gamgee at the Queen's Hospital (later the General Hospital) in Birmingham, England.

Shiny cotton is a processed version of the fiber that can be made into cloth resembling satin for shirts and suits. However, it is hydrophobic (does not absorb water easily), which makes it unfit for use in bath and dish towels (although examples of these made from shiny cotton are seen).

The name Egyptian cotton is broadly associated with quality products, however only a small percentage of Egyptian cotton production is actually of superior quality. Most products bearing the name are not made with the finest cottons from Egypt.^[40]

International trade

Worldwide cotton production

Cottonseed output in 2005

The largest producers of cotton, currently (2009), are China and India, with annual production of about 34 million bales and 24 million bales, respectively; most of this production is consumed by their respective textile industries. The largest exporters of raw cotton are the United States, with sales of $4.9 billion, and Africa, with sales of $2.1 billion. The total international trade is estimated to be $12 billion. Africa's share of the cotton trade has doubled since 1980. Neither area has a significant domestic textile industry, textile manufacturing having moved to developing nations in Eastern and South Asia such as India and China. In Africa, cotton is grown by numerous small holders. Dunavant Enterprises, based in Memphis, Tennessee, is the leading cotton broker in Africa, with hundreds of purchasing agents. It operates cotton gins in Uganda, Mozambique, and Zambia. In Zambia, it often offers loans for seed and expenses to the 180,000 small farmers who grow cotton for it, as well as advice on farming methods. Cargill also purchases cotton in Africa for export.

The 25,000 cotton growers in the United States of America are heavily subsidized at the rate of $2 billion per year. The future of these subsidies is uncertain and has led to anticipatory expansion of cotton brokers' operations in Africa. Dunavant expanded in Africa by buying out local operations. This is only possible in former British colonies and Mozambique; former French colonies continue to maintain tight monopolies, inherited from their former colonialist masters, on cotton purchases at low fixed prices.^[41]

Leading producer countries

Top ten cotton producers—2011 (480-pound bales)
People's Republic of China	33.0 million bales
India	27.0 million bales
United States	18.0 million bales
Pakistan	10.3 million bales
Brazil	9.3 million bales
Uzbekistan	4.6 million bales
Australia	4.2 million bales
Turkey	2.8 million bales
Turkmenistan	1.6 million bales
Greece	1.4 million bales
Source:[42]

The five leading exporters of cotton in 2011 are (1) the United States, (2) India, (3) Brazil, (4) Australia, and (5) Uzbekistan. The largest nonproducing importers are Korea, Taiwan, Russia, Hong Kong and Japan.^[42]

In India, the states of Maharashtra (26.63%), Gujarat (17.96%) and Andhra Pradesh (13.75%) and also Madhya Pradesh are the leading cotton producing states,^[43] these states have a predominantly tropical wet and dry climate.

In Pakistan, cotton is grown predominantly in the provinces of Punjab and Sindh. The leading area of cotton production is the south Punjab, comprising the areas around Bahawalpur, Multan, and Vehari. Faisalabad is a leader in textiles within Pakistan. Punjab has a tropical wet and dry climate throughout the year therefore enhancing the growth of cotton.

In the United States, the state of Texas led in total production as of 2004,^[44] while the state of California had the highest yield per acre.^[45]

Fair trade

Cotton is an enormously important commodity throughout the world. However, many farmers in developing countries receive a low price for their produce, or find it difficult to compete with developed countries.

This has led to an international dispute (see United States – Brazil cotton dispute):

On 27 September 2002, Brazil requested consultations with the US regarding prohibited and actionable subsidies provided to US producers, users and/or exporters of upland cotton, as well as legislation, regulations, statutory instruments and amendments thereto providing such subsidies (including export credits), grants, and any other assistance to the US producers, users and exporters of upland cotton.^[46] On 8 September 2004, the Panel Report recommended that the United States "withdraw" export credit guarantees and payments to domestic users and exporters, and "take appropriate steps to remove the adverse effects or withdraw" the mandatory price-contingent subsidy measures.^[47]

In addition to concerns over subsidies, the cotton industries of some countries are criticized for employing child labor and damaging workers' health by exposure to pesticides used in production. The Environmental Justice Foundation has campaigned against the prevalent use of forced child and adult labor in cotton production in Uzbekistan, the world's third largest cotton exporter.^[48] The international production and trade situation has led to "fair trade" cotton clothing and footwear, joining a rapidly growing market for organic clothing, fair fashion or "ethical fashion". The fair trade system was initiated in 2005 with producers from Cameroon, Mali and Senegal.^[49]

Trade

Cotton is bought and sold by investors and price speculators as a tradable commodity on 2 different stock exchanges in the United States of America .

• Cotton futures contracts are traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) under the ticker symbol TT. They are delivered every year in March, May, July, October, and December.^[50]
• Cotton #2 futures contracts are traded on the New York Board of Trade (NYBOT) under the ticker symbol CT. They are delivered every year in March, May, July, October, and December.^[51]

Critical temperatures

• Favorable travel temperature range: below 25 °C (77 °F)
• Optimum travel temperature: 21 °C (70 °F)
• Glow temperature: 205 °C (401 °F)
• Fire point: 210 °C (410 °F)
• Autoignition temperature: 407 °C (765 °F)
• Autoignition temperature (for oily cotton): 120 °C (248 °F)

Cotton dries out, becomes hard and brittle and loses all elasticity at temperatures above 25°C (77°F). Extended exposure to light causes similar problems.

A temperature range of 25 °C (77 °F) to 35 °C (95 °F) is the optimal range for mold development. At temperatures below 0 °C (32 °F), rotting of wet cotton stops. Damaged cotton is sometimes stored at these temperatures to prevent further deterioration.^[52]

British standard yarn measures

• 1 thread = 55 inches (about 137 cm)
• 1 skein or rap = 80 threads (120 yards or about 109 m)
• 1 hank = 7 skeins (840 yards or about 768 m)
• 1 spindle = 18 hanks (15,120 yards or about 13.826 km)

Fiber properties

Property	Evaluation
Shape	Fairly uniform in width, 12–20 micrometers; length varies from 1 cm to 6 cm (½ to 2½ inches); typical length is 2.2 cm to 3.3 cm (⅞ to 1¼ inches).
Luster	high
Tenacity (strength) Dry Wet	3.0–5.0 g/d 3.3–6.0 g/d
Resiliency	low
Density	1.54–1.56 g/cm³
Moisture absorption raw: conditioned saturation mercerized: conditioned saturation	8.5% 15–25% 8.5–10.3% 15–27%+
Dimensional stability	good
Resistance to acids alkali organic solvents sunlight microorganisms insects	damage, weaken fibers resistant; no harmful effects high resistance to most Prolonged exposure weakens fibers. Mildew and rot-producing bacteria damage fibers. Silverfish damage fibers.
Thermal reactions to heat to flame	Decomposes after prolonged exposure to temperatures of 150˚C or over. Burns readily.

Cotton fibers viewed under a scanning electron microscope

The chemical composition of cotton is as follows:

• cellulose 91.00%
• water 7.85%
• protoplasm, pectins 0.55%
• waxes, fatty substances 0.40%
• mineral salts 0.20%

Cotton genome

This article may be too technical for most readers to understand. Please help improve this section to make it understandable to non-experts, without removing the technical details. The talk page may contain suggestions. (January 2011)

A public genome sequencing effort of cotton was initiated^[53] in 2007 by a consortium of public researchers. They agreed on a strategy to sequence the genome of cultivated, tetraploid cotton. "Tetraploid" means that cultivated cotton actually has two separate genomes within its nucleus, referred to as the A and D genomes. The sequencing consortium first agreed to sequence the D-genome relative of cultivated cotton (G. raimondii, a wild Central American cotton species) because of its small size and limited number of repetitive elements. It is nearly one-third the number of bases of tetraploid cotton (AD), and each chromosome is only present once.^{[clarification needed]} The A genome of G. arboreum would be sequenced next. Its genome is roughly twice the size of G. raimondii's. Part of the difference in size between the two genomes is the amplification of retrotransposons (GORGE). Once both diploid genomes are assembled, then research could begin sequencing the actual genomes of cultivated cotton varieties. This strategy is out of necessity; if one were to sequence the tetraploid genome without model diploid genomes, the euchromatic DNA sequences of the AD genomes would co-assemble and the repetitive elements of AD genomes would assembly independently into A and D sequences respectively. Then there would be no way to untangle the mess of AD sequences without comparing them to their diploid counterparts.

The public sector effort continues with the goal to create a high-quality, draft genome sequence from reads generated by all sources. The public-sector effort has generated Sanger reads of BACs, fosmids, and plasmids as well as 454 reads. These later types of reads will be instrumental in assembling an initial draft of the D genome. In 2010, two companies (Monsanto and Illumina), completed enough Illumina sequencing to cover the D genome of G. raimondii about 50x.^{[clarification needed]} They announced that they would donate their raw reads to the public. This public relations effort gave them some recognition for sequencing the cotton genome. Once the D genome is assembled from all of this raw material, it will undoubtedly assist in the assembly of the AD genomes of cultivated varieties of cotton, but a lot of hard work remains.

See also

• BBCH-scale (cotton)
• Cash crop
• China Cotton Association (CCA)
• Cotton gin
• Cotton manufacturing
• Cotton mill
• The Cotton Museum
• Gossypium
• International Cotton Advisory Committee
• International Year of Natural Fibres
• Java cotton (kapok)
• Madapolam
• Mercerized cotton
• Mobile Cotton Exchange
• New Orleans Cotton Exchange
• New York Cotton Exchange
• Organic cotton
• Sea Island Cotton
• Wool
• Recycling Cotton

References

1. ^ The Biology of Gossypium hirsutum L. and Gossypium barbadense L. (cotton). ogtr.gov.au
2. ^ Metcalf, Allan A. (1999). The World in So Many Words. Houghton Mifflin. p. 123. ISBN 0-395-95920-9. 
3. ^ "Natural fibres: Cotton", International Year of Natural Fibres
4. ^ Moulherat, C., M. Tengberg, J.F. Haquet and B. Mille (2002). "First evidence of cotton at Neolithic Mehrgarh, Pakistan: Analysis of mineralized fibres from a copper bead". Journal of Archaeological Science 29 (12): 1393–1401. doi:10.1006/jasc.2001.0779. 
5. ^ Stein, Burton (1998). A History of India. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 0-631-20546-2, p. 47
6. ^ Wisseman & Williams, p. 127
7. ^ Fuller, D.Q. (2008). The spread of textile production and textile crops in India beyond the Harappan zone:an aspect of the emergence of craft specialization and systematic trade. in Osada,T., Uesugi,A. (ed.) Linguistics, Archaeology and the Human Past. Indus Project Occasional Paper 3 series. Kyoto: Indus Project, Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, 1–26. ISBN 978-4-902325-16-4 [1]
8. ^ ^{a b} cotton. The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001–07.
9. ^ Roche, Julian (1994). The International Cotton Trade. Cambridge, England: Woodhead Publishing Ltd.. pp. 4–5. ISBN 1-85573-104-5. http://books.google.com/?id=SeQCH4-Hc5kC&pg=PA4. 
10. ^ Huckell, Lisa W. (1993). "Plant Remains from the Pinaleño Cotton Cache, Arizona". Kiva, the Journal of Southwest Anthropology and History 59 (2): 147–203. JSTOR 30246122. 
11. ^ Encyclopaedia Islamica Foundation. بنیاد دائره المعارف اسلامی , Retrieved on 28 February 2009.
12. ^ Robyn J. Maxwell (2003). Textiles of Southeast Asia: tradition, trade and transformation (revised ed.). Tuttle Publishing. p. 410. ISBN 0-7946-0104-9. http://books.google.com/?id=H5VDA90eDUoC&pg=PA410&dq=dian+head+hunting+yunnan#v=onepage&q=He%20notes%20that%20it%20was%20already%20cultivated%20by%20non-Chinese%20ethnic%20groups%20in%20the%20Yunnan%20area%20of%20southern%20China%20in%20the%20late%20Han%20dynasty&f=false. Retrieved 15 May 2011. 
13. ^ Stephen Yafa (2004). Cotton: The Biography of a Revolutionary Fiber. Penguin (Non-Classics). p. 16. ISBN 0-14-303722-6. 
14. ^ Boletin, (Spanish) Retrieved July 17, 2008
15. ^ Peru's Cotton. Google.com. Retrieved on 2011-11-27.
16. ^ Peru Cotton Production and Imports. Fas.usda.gov (2005-08-30). Retrieved on 2011-11-27.
17. ^ Wegerich K. 2002. Natural drought or human-made water scarcity in Uzbekistan? Central Asia and the Caucasus. 2, 154–162.
18. ^ Pearce, Fred (2004). "9 "A Salty Hell"". Keepers of the Spring. Island Press. pp. 109–122. ISBN 1-55963-681-5. 
19. ^ A.K. Chapagain, A.Y. Hoekstra, H.H.G. Savenije and R. Gautam (1 November 2006). "The water footprint of cotton consumption: An assessment of the impact of worldwide consumption of cotton products on the water resources in the cotton producing countries". Ecological Economics 60 (1): 186–203. doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2005.11.027. 
20. ^ ^{a b} Mainguet, Monique; René Létolle (1998). "Human-made Desertification in the Aral Sea Basin". The Arid Frontier. Springer. pp. 129–145. ISBN 0-7923-4227-5. 
21. ^ ^{a b} Waltham, Tony; Ihsan Sholji (2001). "The demise of the Aral Sea – an environmental disaster". Geology Today 17 (6): 218–228. doi:10.1046/j.0266-6979.2001.00319.x. 
22. ^ Dickerson et al., Naturally colored cotton CATI #990901
23. ^ Susan Lang (July 25, 2006). "Seven-year glitch: Cornell warns that Chinese GM cotton farmers are losing money due to 'secondary' pests". Cornell University. http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/July06/Bt.cotton.China.ssl.html. 
24. ^ Wang, Z.; Lin, H.; Huang, J.; Hu, R.; Rozelle, S.; Pray, C. (2009). "Bt Cotton in China: Are Secondary Insect Infestations Offsetting the Benefits in Farmer Fields?". Agricultural Sciences in China 8: 83. doi:10.1016/S1671-2927(09)60012-2.  edit
25. ^ ^{a b} Genetically modified plants: Global Cultivation Area Cotton GMO Compass, March 29, 2010. Retrieved August 7, 2010.
26. ^ NASS Acreage Agricultural Statistics Board, USDA, June 2010. Retrieved August 7, 2010.
27. ^ ^{a b} ISAAA Brief 41-2009: Executive Summary Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops: 2009. Retrieved September 6, 2010.
28. ^ Cottonaustralia.com.au, Facts & Figures/Natural Resource Management Issues, Biotechnology, 2010. Retrieved August 14, 2010.
29. ^ Monsanto webpage
30. ^ Technology Review. Technology Review (2006-11-21). Retrieved on 2011-11-27.
31. ^ CCVT Sustainable. Vineyardteam.org. Retrieved on 2011-11-27.
32. ^ VineYardTeam Econ^{[dead link]}
33. ^ AMSv1. Ams.usda.gov. Retrieved on 2011-11-27.
34. ^ OrganicConsumers.org. OrganicConsumers.org (2008-07-30). Retrieved on 2011-11-27.
35. ^ Organic Trade Association.
36. ^ Craig Murray. Murder in Samarkand – A British Ambassador's Controversial Defiance of Tyranny in the War on Terror. ISBN 978-1-84596-194-7. 2006.
37. ^ Fiber History. Teonline.com. Retrieved on 2011-11-27.
38. ^ Land, Power, and Poverty: Agrarian Transformation and Political Conflict, Charles D. Brockett, ISBN 0-8133-8695-0, Google.com p. 46
39. ^ Liese M. Perrin (2001). "Resisting Reproduction: Reconsidering Slave Contraception in the Old South". Journal of American Studies (Cambridge University Press) 35 (2): 255–274. doi:10.1017/S0021875801006612. JSTOR 27556967. 
40. ^ Chapter 5. Extra long staple cotton. cottonguide.org
41. ^ "Out of Africa: Cotton and Cash", article by Usain Bolt in the New York Times, 14 January 2007
42. ^ ^{a b} National Cotton Council of America – Rankings. Cotton.org (2011-03-13). Retrieved on 2011-11-27.
43. ^ "Three largest producing states of important crops" (PDF). http://indiabudget.nic.in/es2001-02/chapt2002/tab115.pdf. Retrieved 2008-04-06. 
44. ^ Jasper Womach (2004). "Cotton Production and Support in the United States". CRS Report for Congress. http://www.nationalaglawcenter.org/assets/crs/RL32442.pdf. 
45. ^ Siebert, JB (1996). "26". Cotton production manual. ANR Publications. p. 366. ISBN 978-1-879906-09-9. http://books.google.com/?id=TllcVXmnLlEC&pg=PA366. 
46. ^ United States — Subsidies on Upland Cotton, World Trade Organization. Retrieved 2 October 2006.
47. ^ United States – Subsidies on Upland Cotton, World Trade Organization. Retrieved 2 October 2006.
48. ^ The Environmental Justice Foundation. "Environmental Justice Foundation: Reports on Cotton" retrieved February 22nd, 2010
49. ^ Market: Cotton, UNCTAD. Retrieved 2 October 2006.
50. ^ NYMEX Cotton Futures Contract Overview via Wikinvest.
51. ^ NYBOT Cotton#2 Futures Contract Overview via Wikinvest.
52. ^ Transportation Information Service of Germany, Gesamtverband der Deutschen Versicherungswirtschaft e.V. (GDV), Berlin, Transport Information Service (TIS) – Cargo, Packaging, Containers, Loss prevention, Marine insurance, 2002–2006
53. ^ Toward Sequencing Cotton (Gossypium) Genomes. Plantphysiol.org. Retrieved on 2011-11-27.

Further reading

• Brown, D. Clayton. King Cotton: A Cultural, Political, and Economic History since 1945 (University Press of Mississippi, 2011) 440 pp. ISBN 978-1-60473-798-1
• Ensminger, Audrey H. and Konlande, James E. Foods and Nutrition Encyclopedia, (2nd ed. CRC Press, 1993). ISBN 0-8493-8980-1
• USDA – Cotton Trade
• Moseley, W.G. and L.C. Gray (eds). Hanging by a Thread: Cotton, Globalization and Poverty in Africa (Ohio University Press and Nordic Africa Press, 2008). ISBN 978-0-89680-260-5)
• Smith, C. Wayne and Joe Tom Cothren. Cotton: origin, history, technology, and production (1999) 850 pages
• True, Alfred Charles. The cotton plant: its history, botany, chemistry, culture, enemies, and uses (U.S. Office of Experiment Stations, 1896) online edition
• Yafa, Stephen H. Big Cotton: How A Humble Fiber Created Fortunes, Wrecked Civilizations, and Put America on the Map (2004) excerpt and text search

External links

This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (December 2011)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Cotton

Look up cotton in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Facts and figures of Cotton Trade 2007 on PBS.org
• Glossary of cotton terms
• Naturally colored cotton
• Plant Cultures – History and botany of cotton
• Spinning the web – Cotton in the UK's Industrial Revolution
• UNCTAD Information on Cotton
• Cotton production in the U.S. South (entry in the New Georgia Encyclopedia)
• 2006 Report from International Cotton Advisory Committee
• USDA AMS – Market News Reports – Cotton Reports
• International Cotton Association
• National Cotton Council News and Current Events
• National Council of Textile Organizations
• Moseley, W.G. 2004. “Cotton’s Not King: Farm Subsidies and Africa.” International Herald Tribune, July 20, pg. 8.

v t e Fibers Natural Animal Alpaca Angora Byssus Camel hair Cashmere Catgut Chiengora Guanaco Llama Mohair Pashmina Qiviut Rabbit Silk Sinew Spider silk Wool Vicuña Yak Vegetable Abacá Bagasse Bamboo Coir Cotton Flax Linen Hemp Jute Kapok Kenaf Piña Raffia Ramie Sisal Wood Mineral Asbestos Synthetic Cellulose Acetate Triacetate Art silk Bamboo Lyocell Rayon Modal Rayon Rayon Mineral Glass Carbon Tenax Basalt Metallic Polymer Acrylic Aramid Twaron Kevlar Technora Nomex Microfiber Modacrylic Nylon Olefin Polyester Polyethylene Dyneema Spectra Spandex Vinylon Vinyon Zylon

v t e Clothing Materials Cotton Fur Leather Linen Nylon Polyester Rayon Silk Spandex Wool Tops Blouse Crop top Dress shirt Halterneck Henley shirt Hoodie Jersey Guernsey Poet shirt Polo shirt Shirt Sleeveless shirt Sleeveless sweater Sweater T-shirt Tube top Turtleneck Twinset Trousers or pants Bell-bottoms Bermuda shorts Bondage pants Capri pants Cargo pants Culottes Cycling shorts Dress pants Jeans Jodhpurs Overall Parachute pants Phat pants Shorts Sweatpants Windpants Skirts A-line skirt Ballerina skirt Fustanella Hobble skirt Jean skirt Job skirt Leather skirt Kilt Men's skirts Microskirt Miniskirt Pencil skirt Poodle skirt Prairie skirt Rah-rah skirt Sarong Skort Slip Train Wrap Dresses Ball gown Cocktail dress Débutante dress Evening gown Gown Jumper dress Little black dress Petticoat Sari Sundress Tea gown Wedding dress Wrap dress Suits and uniforms Academic dress Afrocentric suit Black tie Buddhist monastic robe Clerical clothing Court dress Gymslip Jumpsuit Lab coat Lounge suit Mao suit Morning dress Pantsuit Red Sea rig Scrubs Stroller Tangzhuang Tuxedo White tie Outerwear Abaya Academic gown Anorak Apron Blazer Cagoule Cloak Coat Duffle coat Duster Frock coat Jacket Greatcoat Leather jacket Goggle jacket Hoodie Opera coat Overcoat Pea coat Poncho Raincoat Redingote Robe Shawl Shrug Ski suit Sleeved blanket Sports coat Top coat Trench coat Vest Waistcoat Windbreaker Underwear Boxer briefs Boxer shorts Brassiere Briefs Bustle Compression sportswear Corselet Corset Diaper Dickey Lingerie Loincloth Long underwear Open drawers Panties Teddy Temple garment Trunks Undershirt Izaar Accessories Ascot tie Belly chain Belt Bolo tie Bow tie Chaps Coin purse Cufflink Pocket watch Earring Gaiters Gloves Hairpin Handbag Leg warmer Leggings Muff (handwarmer) Necklace Necktie Scarf Shoe buckle Stocking Sunglasses Suspenders Tights Footwear Athletic shoe Balgha Boot Court shoe Dress shoe Flip-flops Hosiery Sandal Shoe Slipper Sock Headwear Balaclava Beret Bonnet Cap Crown Deely bobber Fascinator Fillet Hairnet Hat Headband Headscarf Helmet Hood Kerchief Mask Snood Tiara Turban Ushanka Veil Visor Wig Nightwear Babydoll Blanket sleeper Negligee Nightcap Nightgown Nightshirt Peignoir Pajamas Swimwear Bikini Boardshorts One-piece Square leg suit Swim briefs Swim cap Swim diaper Swim trunks Wetsuit Clothing parts Back closure Buckle Bustline Button Buttonhole Collar Cuff Elastic Fly Hemline Hook-and-eye Lapel Neckline Pocket Revers Shoulder pad Shoulder strap Sleeve Snap Strap Velcro Waistline Zipper National costume Albanian dress Abaya Aboyne dress Áo bà ba Áo dài Áo tứ thân Batik Baro't saya & Barong Tagalog Bunad Þjóðbúningurinn Cheongsam (Qípáo) Dashiki Deel Dhoti Dirndl Djellaba Fustanella Gákti Gho & Kira Han Chinese clothing Hanbok Highland dress Jellabiya Jilbāb Kebaya Kente cloth Kilt Kimono Lederhosen Sampot Sarafan Sari Sarong Shalwar kameez Sherwani Thawb Historical garments Banyan Bedgown Bodice Braccae Breeches Breeching Brunswick Caraco Chemise Cravat Chiton Chlamys Close-bodied gown Doublet Exomis Farthingale Frock Himation Hose Houppelande Jerkin Justacorps Knickerbockers Palla Peplos Polonaise Sack-back gown Smock-frock Stola Toga Tunic History and surveys Africa Ancient Greece Ancient Rome Ancient world Anglo-Saxon Byzantine Early Medieval Europe Han Chinese History of clothing and textiles History of Western fashion series (1100s–2000s) Sumptuary law Timeline of clothing and textiles technology Vietnam Women wearing pants See also Adaptive clothing Clothing terminology Costume Dress code Fashion Formal wear Ironing Laundry Locking clothing Maternity clothing Reversible garment

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - bomuldsplante, bomuld, bomuldstråd, bomuldsstof
v. intr. - føle sig tiltrukket af

idioms:

• cotton blanket    bomuldstæppe
• cotton bud    bomuldsknop
• cotton candy    sukkervat
• cotton gin    bomuldsegreneringsmaskine
• cotton on    gradvist forstå
• cotton to    føle sig tiltrukket af
• cotton wool    vat, råbomuld

Nederlands (Dutch)
katoen(plant), katoenen, zich aangetrokken voelen tot iemand

Français (French)
n. - (Bot, Tex) coton, fil de coton
v. intr. - piger qch, (US) s'emballer pour, approuver, (US) essayer de se mettre bien avec

idioms:

• cotton blanket    couette, couverture en coton
• cotton bud    Coton-Tige
• cotton candy    (US) barbe à papa
• cotton gin    égreneuse de coton
• cotton on    piger qch, saisir qch
• cotton to    (US) s'emballer pour, approuver
• cotton wool    ouate de coton

Deutsch (German)
n. - Baumwolle
v. - sich angezogen fühlen

idioms:

• cotton blanket    Baumwolldecke
• cotton bud    Wattestäbchen
• cotton candy    Zuckerwatte
• cotton gin    Entkörnungsmaschine
• cotton on    (ugs.) kapieren
• cotton to    (AmE) sich mit jmdm. anfreunden
• cotton wool    Watte

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (φυτολ.) βαμβάκι, βαμβακιά, βαμβακερό νήμα ή ύφασμα
v. - συμπαθώ, παίρνω από καλό μάτι
adj. - βαμβακερός

idioms:

• cotton blanket    βαμβακερή κουβέρτα
• cotton bud    τολύπη μπαμπακιού
• cotton candy    (ΗΠΑ) μαλλί της γριάς
• cotton gin    βαμβακοεκκοκιστική μηχανή
• cotton on    αντιλαμβάνομαι το νόημα, μπαίνω στο νόημα
• cotton to    (αρχίζω να) συμπαθώ, παίρνω από καλό μάτι
• cotton velvet    (ύφασμα) κοτλέ
• cotton wool    (Βρετ.) φαρμακευτικό βαμβάκι, (ΗΠΑ) φυσικό ή ανεπεξέργαστο βαμβάκι

Italiano (Italian)
cotone, di cotone

idioms:

• cotton bud    batuffolo di cotone
• cotton candy    zucchero filato
• cotton gin    sgranatrice
• cotton on    capire
• cotton wool    cotone idrofilo

Português (Portuguese)
n. - algodão (m) (Bot.)
v. - concordar
adj. - de algodão

idioms:

• cotton bud    botão (m) de algodão (Bot.)
• cotton candy    algodão (m) doce
• cotton gin    descaroçador (m) de algodão
• cotton on    entender
• cotton to    fazer amizade
• cotton wool    algodão (m) cru

Русский (Russian)
хлопок, вата, хлопковый, ватный

idioms:

• cotton bud    почка
• cotton candy    сладкая вата
• cotton gin    хлопкоочистительная машина
• cotton on    врубиться
• cotton to    втрескаться, одобрять
• cotton wool    вата

Español (Spanish)
n. - algodón, de algodón
v. intr. - algodonarse, mimar

idioms:

• cotton blanket    manta de algodón
• cotton bud    bastoncillo de algodón
• cotton candy    algodón de azúcar
• cotton gin    desmotadora de algodón
• cotton on    darse cuenta, caer en la cuenta
• cotton to    hacerse amigo de
• cotton wool    algodón hidrófilo, guata

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - bomull, bomullstyg, bomullstråd
v. - komma bra överens
adj. - bomulls-

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
棉花, 棉线, 和谐, 理解, 有好感

idioms:

• cotton blanket    棉毯, 棉被
• cotton bud    棉花的芽
• cotton candy    棉花糖
• cotton gin    轧棉机
• cotton on    理解
• cotton to    交好
• cotton wool    原棉, 脱脂棉

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 棉花, 棉線
v. intr. - 和諧, 理解, 有好感

idioms:

• cotton blanket    棉毯, 棉被
• cotton bud    棉花的芽
• cotton candy    棉花糖
• cotton gin    軋棉機
• cotton on    理解
• cotton to    交好
• cotton wool    原棉, 脫脂棉

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 솜, 목화, 면직물
v. intr. - 조화되다, 애착을 느끼다

idioms:

• cotton on    좋아지다, 이해하다
• cotton to    친하게 되다, 가까워지다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 綿, 木綿, 木綿で作った, 綿の木, 綿糸
v. - 好きになる

idioms:

• cotton blanket    木綿の毛布
• cotton bud    綿花の芽
• cotton candy    綿菓子
• cotton gin    綿繰り機
• cotton on    好きになる, 理解する
• cotton to    と仲よくなる
• cotton velvet    木綿製のベルベット
• cotton wool    生綿, 脱脂綿

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) القطن, خيط القطن (فعل) وافق, تماشى مع (صفه) قطني‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮חוטי-כותנה, כותנה, צמר-גפן‬
v. intr. - ‮נמשך (לאדם מסוים)‬