When I read the title of the thread, I wondered how much land you had and thought now THERE'S a dedicated quilter....lol.
There is some very enlightening information in this thread. Interesting question.
Last year we went to NC in late October. I had never seen cotton bolls in the field - it looked like most of it had already been harvested, but there were still some here and there. My DH pulled off the road and picked a couple bolls out of the ditch, and it is now tucked behind my thimble shelf. :)