The cotton is baled and shipped to manufacturers. After cotton has been freed from the seed, it is sent to the cotton mills all over the world; some in this country and some in Europe. It is sent by boats and sometimes by train. In the picture (Fig. 10) you will see bales on the dock ready to be shipped. In order to ship it safely after it is ginned, it is pressed into bales like the hay you have on your farm; and it is covered with coarse cloth to keep it clean, and is bound with iron bands. The American cotton bales weigh about 500 pounds. This is the size of a bale: 54" × 27" X 45". See if you can measure off in your schoolroom a space which will show the size of the bale. When these bales are taken to the steamboat piers, they are again made smaller by a machine, called a cotton compress, which reduces them to 10 inches in thickness. This is so the bales will not take up so much room in being transported. Sometimes, however, this pressing injures the fiber. The United States ships cotton to Liverpool, Bremen, Havre, Genoa, and many other places. Can you find these on the map and see what a long journey the cotton takes? John Alden went to the map and traced the journey. He used the pointer and started from one of the ports of Louisiana. Can you imagine which one? Which way do you think the steamer sailed in order to reach England as soon as possible? Perhaps you live near a shipping port and can go with your teacher to see the cotton loaded on the ships. Notice how the bales are lowered into the hold. There are large exporting companies which take charge of shipping bales of cotton. What is the difference between import and export We import some cotton from Egypt, because it is a very long fibered cotton and is good for thread, hosiery, and cotton gloves. Another day we shall study how the manufacturer at the mill opens the cotton bale and makes it into cloth.
Courtesy of United States Department of Agriculture.
Fig. 11.—Bales of cotton from different countries. The third from the left is the American bale. The second is Egyptian; the fourth, East Indian.
EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS
1. Where is cotton grown in the United States? Find the states on the map. Tell why cotton is grown in these states.
2. Examine a cotton fiber with the microscope. How does it look? Draw a picture of it.
3. Look up the story of Eli Whitney's invention. Why was it important?
Lesson 3
THE HEMMING STITCH