Cotton
Cotton, a plant belonging to the genus Gossypium, thrives in tropical and subtropical regions where there is ample sunshine and fertile soil. It is primarily cultivated in countries such as the United States, India, China, and Brazil, with Texas being a leading producer in the U.S. Cotton plants can reach heights of up to three meters, though commercial varieties are typically shorter for easier harvesting. The cotton fibers extracted from the plant are predominantly utilized in the textile industry for clothing, but they also have applications in producing fishing nets, paper, and even explosives like guncotton.
The cultivation of cotton dates back at least six thousand years, with significant historical trade routes linking various cultures and regions. Cotton farming practices have evolved, with recent advancements including genetically modified strains that resist pests, although these have faced challenges over time. The cotton ginning process is crucial for separating the fibers from seeds, preparing the cotton for various uses. Cotton remains a vital crop globally, reflecting its deep-rooted historical significance and contemporary relevance in agriculture and manufacturing.
Cotton
Where Found
Cotton (genus Gossypium) is grown within the tropical and subtropical regions of the world in areas that have adequate amounts of sunshine and fertile soil. In general, areas that receive 600 to 1,200 millimeters of rainfall annually are best suited for cotton production because the plant requires a large amount of water in order to grow well. However, dryland cotton farming occurs in areas with lower rainfall totals with the help of irrigation.
Within the United States, most of the cotton crop is grown in Texas, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, North Carolina, California, Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Arizona. Cotton is also commercially produced in India, China, Pakistan, Brazil, Uzbekistan, Turkey, Australia, Turkmenistan, and Burkina Faso.
Primary Uses
Cotton fibers are primarily used in the textile industry for the manufacture of clothing. Smaller amounts of cotton are used to produce fishing nets, cotton paper, tents, and gunpowder. In some parts of the world, cotton is still used to make mattresses. Refined cottonseed oil is used as a vegetable oil in many foods, such as baked goods. Cottonseed hulls are often mixed in with other plant materials to form a roughage ration for cattle.
Technical Definition
Cotton is a plant in the mallow family, Malvaceae. This botanical group is a large family containing a number of plants important to horticulture, including the hibiscus. Cotton plants may grow to a height of 3 meters, but most commercial varieties have been bred to be shorter for easier harvesting. The plant has leaves with three to seven lobes; the ovary of the cotton flower is a capsule or boll, which, when ripe, opens along the dark brown carpels to reveal the usually white inner fibers. Longer fibers are known as staples, while shorter fibers are called linters. When separated from one another by a process known as ginning, the fibers can be woven into cotton yarn and used for textile manufacturing.
Description, Distribution, and Forms
Four species of cotton—Gossypium hirsutum, G. barbadense, G. arboreum, and G. herbaceum—are commercially produced, with G. hirsutum accounting for more than 90 percent of the world’s production. Approximately 8 percent of the world’s cotton is produced from G. barbadense, and the remaining 2 percent comes from G. arboreum and G. herbaceum. G. hirsutum, upland cotton, is native to Florida, the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America and is the cotton with which most Americans are familiar. G. barbadense is a plant of tropical South America and is known commercially as pima cotton. Tree cotton, G. arboreum, is native to India and Pakistan, while the last commercially important species, G. herbaceum, is found in the Arabian Peninsula and southern Africa and is known as levant cotton.
In addition to the four commonly cultivated species of cotton, five noncommercial species of this genus are found in tropical and subtropical areas of the world. These include G. australe and G. sturtianum, both found in Australia; G. darwinii, which grows in the Galápagos Islands; G. thurberi, a plant of northern Mexico and Arizona; and G. tomentosum, a Hawaiian Island endemic.
Cotton is one of the most pesticide-intensive of all cultivated crops. Genetically modified cotton was developed in the twentieth century in an attempt to alleviate some of the cotton farmer’s dependence upon pesticide use. The bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis produces a natural pesticide that is toxic to a number of insects, most notably members of the insect orders Coleoptera (beetles) and Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths). By inserting within cotton tissues the B. thuringiensis gene that codes for this specific toxicity, geneticists were able to develop cotton varieties that were resistant to some of the important pests, such as boll weevils and bollworms. In recent years, some of this cotton has been found to be no longer resistant to pests.
A small percentage of commercially grown cotton is produced with organic methods. No insecticides are used on organically grown cotton, and crop rotation is a technique used in an attempt to keep the soil fertile and to discourage pests.
History
Cotton has been cultivated by a number of cultures for at least six thousand years. The ancient peoples of India, China, Egypt, and Mexico all grew and made use of cotton in weaving textiles. The fiber has been extensively traded throughout both the Old and New Worlds for the past two thousand years. During the first century CE, traders from the Middle East brought fabrics such as calico and muslin to markets in southern Europe. Great Britain’s famous East India Company brought cotton cloth from India during the seventeenth century. Raw cotton was imported from the American colonies in the 1700s, and this import spurred a need for the development of machinery that could process and spin the cotton. Advances such as the spinning jenny, developed in 1764, and Sir Richard Arkwright’s spinning frame, developed in 1769, enabled Britain to produce cotton yarn and cloth with increased speed and efficiency. American Eli Whitney’s well-known 1793 invention of the cotton gin allowed cotton seeds to be easily stripped from the fibers.
During the American Civil War, Britain could not obtain cotton from the United States and so bargained with Egypt for its supply. After the war, however, Britain turned again to buying its cotton from the United States, and the resulting loss of trade was a severe blow to the Egyptian economy. Cotton continued to be a staple crop for the southern United States throughout the 1800s and 1900s and remains a primary export crop for the country.
Obtaining Cotton
In traditional cotton farming, cotton fields are cleared of old plants from the previous growing season and thoroughly plowed into rows. The farmer may clear fields in the winter or wait until early spring before planting. Cotton seeds are planted mechanically in the spring, when the soil is warm enough for seeds to germinate. Germination occurs in five to ten days if adequate soil moisture is available; a full stand of cotton is generally present in eleven days if germination is successful. Within five to seven weeks “squares” (cotton flower buds) open to produce a creamy yellow flower that self-pollinates within three days. As the flower matures it changes color from light yellow to pink to darker red before falling off the plant to reveal the tiny “boll.” Approximately forty-five to eighty days after the bolls form, they split along the carpels of the fruit to reveal white fibers. A boll may contain as many as 500,000 of these fibers, which are called staples. Staple length varies among the different cotton species, with upland cotton having staple lengths of 0.81 inch to 1.25 inches and pima cotton having lengths of 1.31 inches to 1.5 inches.
If the cotton is to be mechanically picked, it must first be defoliated, so that leaves will not be picked along with the cotton bolls. After completing the defoliation, cotton pickers can drive through the fields and pick the cotton as long as it is dry. Moisture, from either dew or rain, damages the cotton fibers once the bolls have opened, so farmers hope for dry weather during harvesting.
Picked cotton is formed into bales weighing 218 kilograms each; thirteen to fifteen bales may then be formed into modules and transported to the cotton gin. The ginning process fluffs the cotton and cleans it of dirt, plant trash, and seeds. Cleaned cotton is compressed again into bales, which are inspected; if cleared for sale, the bales are stored in a temperature- and moisture-controlled warehouse until being moved to a processing facility.
Worldwide, an estimated 112.4 million bales of cotton were harvested during the 2023–24 season. This was the second-lowest seasonal yield since 2017, and marked a roughly 5 percent decline from the 2022–23 season. This was largely due to lower crop yields because of unfavorable weather. However, experts believed seasonal yields would increase in the mid-2020s.
Uses of Cotton
Cotton’s primary use is in the manufacture of textiles. Although there are many different types of cotton fabric, some of the best known include terrycloth, a soft fabric used to make bath cloths, towels, and robes; denim, used in jean manufacture, which can be dyed a variety of colors but usually is dyed blue; chambray, a soft, blue cloth from which work shirts are made; and corduroy and twill, from which heavier, sturdier items of clothing are made. Cotton yarn is used in quilt making. Egyptian cotton is often used to produce bedsheets and pillowcases.
After cotton seeds are removed from raw cotton during the ginning process, cottonseed oil can be refined and used as a vegetable oil in cooking. It is also used in shortening and salad dressing and is a common component of baked goods such as crackers and cookies. Cottonseed meal and cottonseed hulls are fed to ruminant livestock such as cattle and goats, and the meal can be fed to fish and poultry. Nonruminant mammals are unable to eat cottonseed products because of a toxic chemical, gossypol, which will sicken and possibly kill these animals.
Strong fishnets and tents can be made from cotton fibers. When exposed to nitric acid, cotton can be used to form “guncotton” or “smokeless powder,” a type of explosive that is safer to use than black powder.
Cotton fibers have been used for many years in the production of paper and as binding for books. Cotton paper is stronger than wood-pulp-based paper and retains ink better. Therefore, it is often used to produce paper money and archival copies of important books and documents.
Bibliography
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Hake, S. Johnson, T. A. Kerby, and K. D. Hake. Cotton Production Manual. U of California, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, 1996.
Meyer, Leslie and Dew, Taylor. "Cotton and Wool Outlook: September 2023." USDA, 14 Sept. 2023, downloads.usda.library.cornell.edu/usda-esmis/files/n870zq801/h415qt447/7w62gs99r/CWS-23i.pdf. Accessed 21 Dec. 2024.
Riello, Giorgio. Cotton: The Fabric That Made the Modern World. Cambridge UP, 2013.
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