burnsk

Thank you for sharing your pictures. Very interesting. I've never seen a cotton plant or field before. Interesting to see the bales, too.

bnlmom

As we drove from Ohio to Texas last week, we saw these fields along the highway. At first I thought it was wildflowers,but then realized it was the "factory" where quilting fabric came from!

wvdek

How interesting. Really shows how full circle everything comes.

MsEithne

The original mechanised cotton gin was a screen that used wire hooks to pull the cotton fibres through the screen, which the cottonseeds were too large to pass through, plus brushes that cleaned the cotton fibres off the wire hooks.

Modern cotton gins operate on the same basic principle, but with lots more brushes, screen, etc. And also dryers to drive the remaining moisture out of the cotton fibre, combs to lay the loose fibres down in continuous organised sheets, folding or rolling mechanisms to create bales, etc.

I still wonder what might have happened historically if coloured cotton had become the crop of choice. Natural coloured cotton has a shorter fibre length but the fibres are very loosely attached to the seed and can be easily wiped off by hand or by rolling the bolls between a flat surface and a roller that squeezes the seeds out. Without the need for cheap labour that made white cotton economically feasible to grow, would the US have had slavery? Or would slavery have lasted so long in the US?

fidgety

I have seen corn fields, soybean fields, sugar cane, pineapple, tobacco and I dont think one of them looked quite as interesting as the cotton fields do.. Thanks...

LLWinston44

Really neat!! I remember seeing fields when I was little, but never see them anymore... I wonder where that was.... Lol

Murphy

Wow, I've not seen this before. Very interesting. Thank you for showing the cradle to production (smile). It is greatly appreciated.

Xstitshmom

Just drove past some cotton fields here in North Carolina last weekend. Looks like they are ready for harvest!

Carron

Great pics. Thanks for sharing.

GagaSmith

I've never seen a cotton plant before. Thanks for showing us the pics.