Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 03.djvu/214

COTTON India, China, and many other countries. It attains the height of 18 or 24 inches. The seed is usually planted in rows in March, April, and May; the cotton is gathered by hand within a few days of the opening of the pods, in August, September, and October; in the United States often through November and December, or even till it becomes necessary to prepare the land for a new crop. It is to this kind that planters mainly confine their attention in the United States. In places where cotton is more extensively cultivated the following varieties are commonly distinguished: (1) Nankeen cotton, abundant in produce, the seed covered with down, the wool of a dirty yellow color, and usually low-priced. (2) Green-seeded cotton, which, as well as the former, is grown in upland and middle districts, whence the latter is called upland, also short-staple, and, from the mode in which it was formerly cleaned, “bowed Georgia cotton.” This kind was at first chiefly raised in Georgia and South Carolina, but in later years its cultivation has been very greatly extended throughout the Southern States. (3) Sea-island, or long-stapled cotton, the finest of all, is distinguished by the black color of its seed, and the fine yellowish-white, strong and silky long staple by which it is surrounded; it is grown in the lower parts of Georgia and South Carolina, near the sea, between Charleston and Savannah, and on small islands adjoining the shore and in Florida. All the varieties of the plant require a dry and sandy soil. Marshy ground is wholly unfit for it, and a wet season is

destructive to the crops, which are besides precarious from the disease to which the plant is subject, particularly blight. In general it flourishes most luxuriantly and yields produce of the best quality on the coast, as is proved by the growth of the sea-island cotton, which is mostly exposed to the action of the ocean's spray; and a manure of soft mud is known to impart a healthful action to the plant and to produce a staple at once strong and silky. To this rule, however, the fine Pernambuco cotton is an exception; also the Egyptian, the growth of the upper provinces being greatly superior to that of the Nile Delta. In the United States by special cultivation two, three, and even four bales of 500 pounds each can be made on a single acre.

The cotton production of the United States in 1920 was 12,987,000 bales, compared with 11,421,000 bales in 1919. The total acreage was 36,383,000 in 1920, compared with 33,566,000 in 1919. The total farm value of the 1920 production was $914,590,000, compared with a value of the 1919 crop of $2,034,658,000. The increased value of the 1919 crop is due to the unusually high prices received for cotton. Industrial conditions in 1920 produced a lessened demand and consequently lesser price.

The States producing the largest yields in 1920 were as follows: Texas, 4,200,000 bales; South Carolina, 1,530,000 bales; Oklahoma, 1,300,000 bales; Georgia, 1,400,000 bales; North Carolina, 840,000 bales; Mississippi, 885,000 bales; Alabama, 660,000 bales.

There were imported to the United