The Story in a Bale of Cotton

Where Does Cotton Come From?

We get cotton from a plant which grows best in the warm climate of our Southern States. Cotton has been known to the people of the world for a long time. Before the birth of Christ people knew about cotton. They thought it was wool which grew on a tree instead of a sheep’s back. No other plant is of such value to man as cotton. We should learn something about a plant that is used by man in so many ways as cotton.

The cotton plant of our Southern States is a small shrub-like annual about four feet high. The flowers of the cotton plant are white at first but change to cream color and then are tinged with red. This change takes place over a period of four days when the petals drop off and leave what is called a “boll” in the calyx of the flower. This boll, which is to contain the cotton, is really the seed container of the cotton plant and keeps on growing larger until it is about as big as a hen’s egg. When it is fully grown or ripe the boll cracks and the seeds and fibrous lint burst forth. The bolls are then gathered and taken to a cotton gin, where the seeds are separated from the lint and the lint prepared for weaving.

The boll is divided into from three to five sections. Each section contains a quantity of lint and seeds. When the boll is fully grown the covering of each of the sections cracks and opens up, revealing the contents. It is just like opening the door of each section and having the contents burst out. When these bolls burst open, there is no more beautiful sight in the world than to look out over a cotton field and see the colored people—the “cotton pickers”—busy at their work picking off the bolls.

When the crop is gathered and ginned, the lint is packed into bales and taken to the cotton mill, where it is made into cloth. One of the most interesting industrial processes in the world is to see the bale of cotton go into a cotton mill and come out a piece of cotton goods.

THE COTTON ARRIVES AT THE MILL

FIRST STEPS IN MAKING COTTON CLOTH

PUTTING THE COTTON FIBER ON BOBBINS

THE COTTON IS READY FOR DYEING

WHERE THE COTTON IS WOVEN INTO CLOTH

THE COTTON CLOTH FINISHED

Pictures herewith by courtesy of White Oak Mills.

Who Discovered Cotton?

Just who discovered cotton is not known. The early records are so incomplete that no individual can be credited with the discovery of the value of this wonderful plant. Long before Cæsar’s time, among the Hindoos they had a law that if you stole a piece of cotton you were fined three times its value. Most of the early nations were familiar with cotton—the early Egyptians, Chinese and other ancient people used it and valued it.

What Nation Produces the Most Cotton?

The United States is the leader in the production of cotton, as in many other important world products. We produce more than seventy-five per cent of all the cotton grown in the world. The remainder is practically all grown by East India, Egypt and Brazil.

What is Cotton Used For?

The cotton plant is one of the wonder plants of the world, when you stop to think how well we could get along without wool or silk or other fabrics if we had to.

Little would be lost to the world so far as actual comfort is concerned if all of the other fabric-making materials were lost. We would sleep, as we often do now, in beds the coverings of which were pure cotton, in a room in which the rugs were woven from cotton, the sun kept out of the room by cotton window shades. We could still have plenty of good soap to wash our bodies and clothing, for much of our soap to-day is made from cotton-seed oil; then we could use a cotton towel to dry ourselves; and put on a complete outfit of clothing made entirely of cotton. White cotton table cloths and napkins are not so fine as linen; they are good enough for anyone. Your breakfast rolls will taste quite as well if baked with cottolene instead of lard; the meat for your dinner would be fed and fattened on cotton-seed meal and hulls as they are now; you would have butter made from cotton-seed that compares favorably with the butter you now have on the table; the tobacco in your cigar would continue to be grown under cotton cloth and packed in cotton bags; armies would still sleep under cotton tents and could use gun-cotton to destroy the enemy.

What Are the Principal Cotton Cloths?

There are a great many different names given to cotton cloths, but they may in general be divided into five classes—plain goods, twills, sateen, fancy cloth and jacquard fabrics. The cotton cloth in each of these classes varies and goes by different names. For instance, in Plain Goods, the different kinds are lawn, nainsook, sheeting, mull, print cloth, madras. The difference lies in the number of threads in one inch of width, the fineness and the weave. The Twills have lines running diagonally and are used for linings mostly. The difference is in the weaving. Denim, largely used for overalls, belongs to the class of Twills. Sateen is used for dress linings, dresses and waists. Then there is the class of Fancy Cloths which is another kind of weave used largely in children’s clothes, shirt waists, etc., and under the name Scrim is fine for draperies and towelling. The other class, Jacquard Fabrics, represents the most complicated form of weaving and used largely under special individual names or brands for dress goods, novelties, etc.

How Much Cotton Cloth Will a Pound of Cotton Make?

When the cotton is spun into yarn it is no longer sold by the bale, but by the pound. It is impossible to make an exact statement of the amount of cotton cloth one pound of cotton yarn will make, because of the difference in weaving. It has, however, been figured out that a pound of cotton yarn should make
3¹⁄₂ yards of sheeting, or
3³⁄₄ yards of muslin, or
9¹⁄₂ yards of lawn, or
7¹⁄₂ yards of calico, or
5¹⁄₂ yards of gingham, or
57 spools of thread.

Picture by courtesy Browne & Howell Co.