Wooooooo. This is way cool. I've never seen a real live cotton plant before. I always heard cotton grew on plants but I've never seen one. Thanks so much for sharing. Where are these cotton plants located? And when is the best time of the year to see them in person?

Me too, thank you for the pics.

Hmm, when I hear gin, it doesn't make me think of cotton, lol....

The movie "Places in the Heart" with Sally Fields is a good example of Depression Era hand picking of cotton. What back breaking work it must have been.

Ya know, being from Texas, where cotton is grown, I see it all the time. But here, on this board, It amazes me at how many people have never seen a cotton plant before. Sometimes ya tend to take for granted what you live with and see day to day. I guess cotton to a northerner is like snow to us Texans.
Mikki

This was a fun 'thread' to read. My first time to see cotton fields was as a child when parents drove us from Eastern Colorado to relatives in Texas for Christmas in mid 50's. We stopped and Dad picked us each a boll. I imagine it was just the leftovers since I would think that by Dec. everything had already been picked. I do remember the stem being fairly hard and scratchy. Amazing the history our country has. I am glad there are still some cotton growers. At least everything hasn't been out-sourced.

I grew up in the country and worked many times in the cotton fields--chopping, weeding, and then picking the cotton. I do not want to go back to that!! I'm sure it is all done by machine these days.

Soooo interesting! I love learning about new things - a lot of hard working people help make our quilts! Thanks to them!

Thanks! Does anyone know what type of products US cotton mainly becomes?

I am a city girl, born and raise in Baltimore city. I lived in Nebraska for a while when my ex husband was in the AirForce, saw my very first real live cow then, lol....Saw a real chicken house too, was sooo cool to just walk in there and see their little eggs just waiting to be snatched from under them, sorta felt guilt about eating eggs for a long time after that, lol....When you're not raised around these kinds of things it's soo amazing to finally see where things come from.