Cotton In Today's World (1961)

[Applause] of the many different kinds of plants that man grows for his use cotton is one of the most important man's use of cotton is worldwide and the crop is grown in many different lands here is a woman carting cotton in a village in west africa a man adjusts a power loom in mexico and in brazil workers pick ripe cotton indonesian children wear shirts and shorts of cotton and in the united states a garment worker cuts cotton cloth the cotton industry in india is very old for cotton has been grown in india for centuries cotton one of the world's oldest crops was grown in india as early as 2500 bc on the banks of the indus river the ancient city of mohenjo-daro in the indus valley may have been the place where cotton was first grown and used by men in egypt too cotton has a very long history ancient sculptures and paintings in egypt show men wearing short tunics of cotton as we see in this model from the ancient lands of the east knowledge of the uses of cotton spread around the mediterranean and across europe to england by the late 1700s the cotton textile industry was flourishing in many parts of england in america it was an englishman samuel slater who built the first cotton mills cotton for american mills came from the southern united states where the climate was best suited for growing it most southern farmers produced only a small annual crop because of the tiresome task of having to remove the cotton seeds from the fibers by hand for centuries seeds had been removed in this slow tedious way then in 1793 a seed removing machine was invented by eli whitney he called it the cotton engine or cotton gin the cotton gin mechanized the removal of seeds helping to make possible the processing of greater amounts of cotton and the growing of cotton on larger and larger plantations the development of the plantation system brought wealth to many planters and enabled them to live prosperously so vital was the cotton trade to their economy that the planters called it king cotton through the long history of this plant growers have developed many different types of cotton among these varieties there are differences in the length of the fibers and in the sturdiness of the fibers these six varieties of cotton are among those grown by the world's leading cotton-producing countries the united states leads all other countries producing about fifteen million bales per year other major world producers are the soviet union india mexico china egypt and brazil the lead of the united states in world production depends mainly upon its fertile cotton belt stretching across a vast portion of the southern united states some of the small farms in the cotton belt still depend on hand labor to harvest the crop cotton which is grown for hand picking is usually picked two or even three times during the year although hand picking is still done in the cotton belt most of the work today is done by machines a mechanical picker can pick as much cotton in one hour as can seven average hand pickers in one day but the work of growing the cotton with the help of machines begins long before the cotton harvest before planting cotton in the spring the stalks of last year's crop are cut up and left to decay thus adding humus to the soil after plowing the soil is further broken up by using a harrow finally the field is ready for planting once again planting is a job that is done with the help of a machine the machine is loaded with fertilizer as well as with cotton seeds planters try to choose the type of seed which they know will grow best in their particular area one type of planting machine plants the cotton seed fertilizes the seed and closes the furrow in one operation where rainfall is insufficient irrigation is used for growing cotton west texas and california are producing large amounts of cotton on irrigated land as the cotton plants grow they are thinned out by using a hoe in a process called chopping chopping is still done in many places by hand on large farms when machines do planting that is evenly spaced the young plants do not have to be thinned out cotton grows best in a humid subtropical climate with a rainfall of 20 to 60 inches per year after the plants have been thinned out and continue to grow they must be weeded this is sometimes done by hand but machine cultivators are also used to keep down the weeds between the rows of cotton plants before the cotton plants are mature they produce beautiful white blossoms just below each flower after it has bloomed there is a slight swelling this is the developing cotton bowl to protect the bowls the fields are dusted with various kinds of insect poison low flying planes are often used to spray insecticide which will kill the cotton bowl weevil the eggs of this insect are laid on the cotton plant when the larvae hatch they eat into the bowl destroying the cotton fibers before harvesting fields are sometimes dusted with a chemical that destroys the leaves of the plants leaving the ripened bowls this simplifies machine picking each plant may produce a hundred or more bowls in a season each bowl consists of three to five sections each section containing both the fluffy cotton fibers and cotton seeds now the cotton is ready to be picked machine picking is done on nearly all the large farms this kind of mechanical picker has turning spindles which collect the cotton after the whirling spindles pick the bowls they are blown into a large bin at the rear of the picker after picking the cotton seeds are removed by huge modern gins then the cleaned cotton is pressed into bales weighing about 500 pounds each now the baled cotton fiber is ready for the cotton markets and mills of the world this cotton may go to a textile factory to be spun into thread on mechanical spindles then it may be woven into cloth that is cut up and later sewn into cotton dresses and other cotton wear some cotton is made into string or many other household and business products cottonseed oil is also useful in making products such as soap and cooking oil in the lives of millions of people in many lands cotton one of man's oldest crops continues to play an important part in today's world you