How cotton grows. The farmer plants the cotton seeds in rows,—you have seen corn planted in that way. What color is corn? The cotton seeds do not look like kernels of corn; but some are fuzzy and soft and gray or green in color, and others are black and smooth. This is because there are many varieties or kinds of cotton. Some grow to be five feet tall like corn; others, ten feet in height. The flowers are yellow at first and then turn brown or purplish red. There are over one hundred varieties of cotton. If you do not live near a cotton field, perhaps you can ask some boy or girl in your school to write to the United States Department of Agriculture at Washington. This department will send you some cotton seeds. Perhaps you can plant the seeds in the school garden and see if they will grow. In the South the planter prepares the fields about February and plants in April or May. By the middle of August, the plants are five or six feet high and are covered with fuzzy little white balls, soft and dry. The cotton fields, or plantations as they are called, look like fairyland. In the picture (Fig. 6) you will see the men, women, and children busy picking the cotton and putting it into baskets. The cotton bolls, as they are called, are brown and dry looking: but when ripe, they burst, and the woolly looking white ball pops out of its brown house, or shell (Fig. 7). In each cotton boll there are about thirty or forty seeds, and the cotton fibers are all attached to these seeds. The fibers are made into thread and clothing, and the seeds are used for many purposes.
Courtesy of the United States Department of Agriculture.
Fig. 6.—Picking cotton.
Cotton fibers differ. We shall learn how the fiber is pulled from the seeds. This process is called ginning and is done by a machine. If you have a microscope in your school, look at a cotton fiber under the glass. Miss James will send for some fibers. You will see that it looks like a ribbon which has been twisted. The natural twist helps very much when cotton is twisted or is manufactured into yarn. Cotton is a wonderful little fiber and varies in length from ½ to 2 inches. The cotton called Sea Island cotton is the long fiber cotton, and is grown near the sea, for it needs the sea air. The cotton called Upland grows away on the uplands and is shorter. These are the principle kinds grown in the United States.
Courtesy of the United States Department of Agriculture.
Fig. 7.—Cotton bolls when burst are about the size of a small apple.
