Cotton

Cotton is a soft fiber that grows around the seeds of the cotton plant (Gossypium spp.), a shrub native to the Indian subcontinent and the tropical and subtropical regions of Africa and the Americas. more...

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The fiber is most often spun into thread and used to make a soft, breathable textile, which is the most widely used natural-fiber cloth in clothing today. The English name descends from the Arabic word "al qutun", (hence also came the Spanish word "algodón") meaning cotton fiber. Africa and South America are large providers of cotton.

Cotton fibre (once processed to remove seeds and traces of wax, protein, etc.) consists of nearly pure cellulose, a natural polymer. Cotton production is very efficient, in the sense that ten percent or less of the weight is lost in subsequent processing to convert the raw cotton bolls into pure fiber. The cellulose is arranged in a way that gives cotton fibers a high degree of strength, durability, and absorbency. Each fibre is made up of twenty to thirty layers of cellulose coiled in a neat series of natural springs. When the cotton boll (seed case) is opened the fibres dry into flat, twisted, ribbon-like shapes and become kinked together and interlocked. This interlocked form is ideal for spinning into a fine yarn.

Cultivation

Successful cultivation of cotton requires a long growing season, plenty of sunshine and water during the period of growth, and dry weather for harvest. In general, these conditions are met within tropical and warm subtropical latitudes in the Northern and Southern hemispheres. Production of the crop for a given year usually starts soon after harvesting the preceding autumn. Planting time in spring varies from the beginning of February to the beginning of June.

Cotton plant

Cotton fiber originates from the cotton plant, an important crop in tropical climates and warm temperate climates. Commercial species of cotton plant are Gossypium hirsutum (U.S.A. and Australia), G. arboreum, G. herbaceum (Asia), and G. barbadense (Egypt).

History

Cotton has been used to make very fine lightweight cloth in areas with tropical climates for millennia. Evidence has been found of cotton in Mexican caves (cotton cloth and fragments of bloody fibre interwoven with feathers and fur) which dated back to approximately 7,000 years ago. There is clear archaeological evidence that people in India and South America domesticated different species of cotton independently thousands of years ago.

Cotton cultivation in the Old World began from India, where cotton has been grown for more than 6,000 years, since the pre-Harappan period. Cotton from the Harappan civilization was exported to Mesopotamia during the 3rd millennium BC, and cotton was soon known to the Egyptians as well. The famous Greek historian Herodotus also wrote about Indian cotton: "There are trees which grow wild there, the fruit of which is a wool exceeding in beauty and goodness that of sheep. The Indians make their clothes of this tree wool." (Book III. 106)

Read more at Wikipedia.org