Encyclopedia
Cotton is a soft fiber that grows around the seeds of the cotton plant , a
shrub native to the tropical and subtropical regions of both the Old World and the
New World. The fiber is most often spun into thread and used to make a soft, breathable
textile, which is the most widely used natural-fiber cloth in clothing today. The English name descends from the Arabic word
al qutun, meaning cotton fiber. Africa and South America are large providers of cotton.
Cotton fiber consists of nearly pure
cellulose, a natural
polymer. Cotton production is very efficient, in the sense that, ten percent or less of the weight is lost in subsequent processing to convert the raw cotton bolls into pure fiber. The cellulose is arranged in a way that gives cotton fibers a high degree of strength, durability, and absorbency. Each fibre is made up of twenty to thirty layers of cellulose coiled in a neat series of natural springs. When the cotton boll is opened the fibres dry into flat, twisted, ribbon-like shapes and become kinked together and interlocked. This interlocked form is ideal for spinning into a fine
yarn.
Cultivation
Successful cultivation of cotton requires a long growing season, plenty of sunshine and water during the period of growth, and dry weather for harvest. In general, these conditions are met within tropical and warm subtropical latitudes in the Northern and Southern hemispheres. Production of the crop for a given year usually starts soon after harvesting the preceding autumn. Planting time in spring varies from the beginning of February to the beginning of June.
Cotton plant
Cotton fiber originates from the cotton plant, an important crop in tropical climates and warm temperate climates. Commercial species of cotton plant are
Gossypium hirsutum ,
G. arboreum,
G. herbaceum , and
G. barbadense .
History
Cotton has been used to make very fine lightweight
cloth in areas with tropical climates for millennia. Some authorities claim that it was likely that the
Egyptians had cotton as early as 12,000 BC, and evidence has been found of cotton in
Mexican caves which dated back to approximately 7,000 years ago. There is clear archaeological evidence that people in South America and India domesticated different species of cotton independently thousands of years ago.
The earliest reference to cotton was in
India. Cotton has been grown in India for more than 6,000 years since the
pre-Harappan period, and it is later referred to in the
Rig-Veda, composed in 3000 BC. Two thousand years later, the famous
Greek historian
Herodotus wrote about Indian cotton: "There are trees which grow wild there, the fruit of which is a
wool exceeding in beauty and goodness that of
sheep. The Indians make their clothes of this tree wool".
In
Peru, cotton was the backbone of the development of coastal cultures such as the Moche and
Nazca. Cotton was grown upriver, made into nets and traded with fishing villages along the coast for large supplies of fish. The Spanish who came to Mexico in the early 1500s found the peoples there wearing cotton clothing and growing it.
During the late
mediaeval period, cotton became known as an imported fibre in northern
Europe, without any knowledge of what it came from other than that it was a
plant; noting its similarities to wool, people in the region could only imagine that cotton must be produced by plant-borne sheep.
John Mandeville, writing in 1350, stated as fact the now-preposterous belief: "There grew there India a wonderful tree which bore tiny lambs on the endes of its branches. These branches were so pliable that they bent down to allow the lambs to feed when they are hungrie.". This aspect is retained in the name for cotton in many European languages, such as
German Baumwolle, which translates as "tree wool". By the end of the 16th century AD, cotton was cultivated throughout the warmer regions in
Africa,
Eurasia and the
Americas.
India's cotton-processing sector gradually declined during British expansion in India and the establishment of
colonial rule during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. This was largely due to the East India Company's de-industrialization of India, which forced the closing of cotton processing and manufacturing workshops in India, to ensure that Indian markets supplied only raw materials and were obliged to purchase manufactured textiles from Britain.
The advent of the
Industrial Revolution in Britain provided a great boost to cotton manufacture, as textiles emerged as Britain's leading export. The invention of the
spinning jenny in 1764 and
Richard Arkwright's spinning frame in 1769 enabled British weavers to produce cotton yarn and cloth at much higher rates. Production capacity was further improved by the invention of the
cotton gin by
Eli Whitney in 1793. Improving technology and increasing control of world markets allowed British traders to develop a commercial chain in which raw cotton fibres were purchased from colonial plantations, processed into cotton
cloth in the mills of
Lancashire, and then re-exported on British ships to captive colonial markets in
West Africa,
India, and
China .
By the 1840s, India was no longer capable of supplying the vast quantities of cotton fibres needed by mechanised British factories, while shipping bulky, low-price cotton from India to Britain was time-consuming and expensive. This, coupled with the emergence of American cotton as a superior type encouraged British traders to purchase cotton from slave plantations in the
United States and the
Caribbean. Due to the enormous quantities of raw cotton required to make cheap bulk exports, British industrialists quickly abandoned expensive raw cotton produced in
India in favour of mass-produced cotton from the southern
United States, which was much cheaper as it was produced by unpaid
slaves. By the mid 19th century, "King Cotton" had become the backbone of the southern American economy. In the
United States, cultivating and harvesting cotton became the leading occupation of
slaves.
During the
American Civil War, American cotton exports slumped due to a
Union blockade on
Southern ports, prompting the main purchasers of cotton, Britain and
France, to turn to
Egyptian cotton. British and French traders invested heavily in cotton plantations and the Egyptian government of
Viceroy Isma'il took out substantial loans from European bankers and stock exchanges. After the American Civil War ended in 1865, British and French traders abandoned Egyptian cotton and returned to cheap American exports, sending Egypt into a deficit spiral that led to the country declaring
bankruptcy in 1876, a key factor behind Egypt's annexation by the
British Empire in 1882.
In the
United States, cotton remained a key crop in the southern economy after
emancipation and the end of the civil war in 1865. Across the south,
sharecropping evolved, in which free black farmers worked on white-owned cotton plantations in return for a share of the profits . Cotton plantations required vast labour forces to hand-pick cotton fibres, and it was not until the 1950s that reliable harvesting machinery was introduced into the South . During the early
twentieth century, employment in the cotton industry fell as machines began to replace labourers, and as the South's rural labour force dwindled during the First and Second World Wars. Today, cotton remains a major export of the southern United States, and a majority of the world's annual cotton crop is of the long-staple American variety.
chemicals such as fertilizers and insecticides, although a very small number of farmers are moving towards an organic model of production and organic cotton products are now available for purchase at limited locations.
Historically, in North America, one of the most economically destructive pests in cotton production has been the
boll weevil. Due to the US Department of Agriculture's highly successful use of synthetic insecticides.
Most cotton in the United States, Europe and Australia is harvested mechanically, either by a
cotton picker, a machine that removes the cotton from the boll without damaging the cotton plant, or by a cotton stripper which strips the entire boll off the plant. Cotton strippers are generally used in regions where it is too windy to grow picker varieties of cotton and generally used after application of a defoliant or natural defoliation occurring after a freeze. Cotton is a perennial crop in the tropics and without defoliation or freezing, the plant will continue to grow.
The logistics of cotton harvesting and processing have been improved by the development of the
cotton module builder, a machine that compresses harvested cotton into a large block, which is then covered with a tarp and temporarily stored at the edge of the field.
Research and promotion
Beginning as a self-help program in the mid-1960s, the Cotton Research & Promotion Program was organized by U.S. Upland cotton producers in response to cotton's steady decline in market share. At that time, producers voted to set up a per-bale assessment system to fund the Program with built-in safeguards to protect their investments. With the passage of the Cotton Research & Promotion Act of 1966, the Program joined forces and began battling synthetic competitors and re-establishing markets for cotton. Today, the success of this Program has made cotton the best selling fiber in the U.S. and one of the best selling fibers in the world.
Administered by the Cotton Board and conducted by Cotton Incorporated, the Cotton Research & Promotion Program is the program that is continuously working to increase the demand for and profitability of cotton through various research and promotion activities. The Program is funded by U.S. cotton producers and importers.
Egyptian cotton
Egyptian cotton is considered to be one of the best types of cotton, and is produced in various quality levels in long-staple and extra long-staple .
Uses
Cotton is used to make a number of textile products. These include
terrycloth, used to make highly absorbent bath towels and robes,
denim, used to make blue jeans, chambray, popularly used in the manufacture of blue work shirts , along with corduroy, seersucker, and cotton
twill. Socks, underwear, and most
T-shirts are made from cotton. Bed sheets are also often made from cotton. Cotton is also used to make yarn used in
crochet and
knitting. Fabric can also be made from recycled or recovered cotton that would otherwise be thrown away during the spinning, weaving or cutting process. While many fabrics are made completely of cotton, some materials blend cotton with other fibers, including
rayon and synthetic fibers such as
polyester.
In addition to the textile industry, cotton is used in fishnets, coffee filters, tents and in bookbinding. The first Chinese paper was made of cotton fibre, as is the modern US dollar bill and federal stationery. Fire hoses were once made of cotton.
The cottonseed which remains after the cotton is ginned is used to produce cottonseed oil, which after refining can be consumed by humans like any other vegetable oil. The cottonseed meal that is left is generally fed to livestock. In the past, cotton seeds were used by women as an abortifacient.
Cotton linters are fine, silky fibers which adhere to the seeds of the cotton plant after ginning. These curly fibers are typically less than 1/8in, 3mm long. The term may also apply to the longer textile fiber staple lint as well as the short fuzzy fibers from some upland species. Linters are traditionally used in the manufacture of paper and as a raw material in the manufacture of
cellulose.
Pests
The greatest
ecological threat to cotton plants is the
boll weevil. During the late
nineteenth century and early
twentieth century, boll weevil infestations caused significant damage to annual cotton crops in the southern
United States, resulting in frequent economic depressions in rural areas.
Fair trade
Cotton is an enormously important commodity throughout the world. However, many farmers in developing countries receive a low price for their produce, or find it difficult to compete with developed countries.
This has led to an international dispute:
On 27 September 2002 Brazil requested consultations with the US regarding prohibited and actionable subsidies provided to US producers, users and/or exporters of upland cotton, as well as legislation, regulations, statutory instruments and amendments thereto providing such subsidies , grants, and any other assistance to the US producers, users and exporters of upland cotton.
On 8 September 2004, the Panel Report recommended that the United States "withdraw" export credit guarantees and payments to domestic user and exporters, and "take appropriate steps to remove the adverse effects or withdraw" the mandatory price-contingent subsidy measures .
The international production and trade situation has led to '
fair trade' cotton clothing or footwear being available in some countries. The fair trade system was initiated in 2005 with producers from
Cameroon,
Mali and
Senegal.
Old British cotton yarn measures
- 1 thread = 54 inches
- 1 skein or rap = 80 threads
- 1 hank = 7 skeins
- 1 spindle = 18 hanks
See also
References and further reading
- Charles S. Aiken, The Cotton Plantation South since the Civil War 1998
- The Thames and Hudson Manual of Dyes and Fabrics, Joyce Storey, 1978
External links
History and uses
Research
Markets
Trade associations
- - a cotton industry trade group
Cotton Technology Organisations
- - manufacturers of the "HVI" SITC machines for testing cotton quality in high volumes
- - manufacturers of "ART" SITC machines for testing cotton quality in high volumes
- - Software specialists in the cotton market
- - A committee aimed at creating an XML standard for sharing cotton information between organisations
