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 Cotton: The Tree Wool?
There
was once a belief that cotton fiber originated on plants that were also part
sheep. A German term for cotton still used today, Baumwolle, or "tree wool" bears out this old myth that
cotton came from "Scythian lambs" who sat on the end of the plant's
stems and bent down to graze on nearby grasses. When the area around this plant
was grazed to the ground, the "lambs" would die of starvation, making
the wool accessible for easy harvest!
Top Ten Facts About Cotton:
- Cotton
is produced by small trees and shrubs.
- It
is in the same family as hibiscus, okra, and swamp mallow.
- The
immature flower bud is called a square.
- Scientists
have found fiber and boll fragments from the Tehuacán Valley of Mexico from
about 7000 years ago.
- The
plant has been grown and used in India for at least 5000 years and probably for
much longer.
- It
was one of the earliest crops grown by European settlers, having been planted at
the Jamestown colony in 1607.
- Planting
time varies from the beginning of February in southern Texas to the beginning of
June in the northern sections of the Cotton Belt.
- Cotton
ranks just behind corn, soybeans, wheat, and hay among the leading cash crops of
United States agriculture and is among the nation's principal agricultural
exports.
- The
leading cotton-producing states are Texas, California, Georgia, Mississippi,
Arkansas, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Arizona.
- Some
cotton products are padding in furniture and automobiles, cotton swabs,
plastics, lacquers, smokeless powder for munitions, feed for cattle, cottonseed
oil, yarn, cloth, cordage, and much more!
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