Cotton

American Indians grew cotton in the early 1500's, and sightings by the Coronado expedition in 1540-1542 documented it. Spaniards raised a cotton crop in Florida in 1556. Pioneers had to make all the thread required for clothing, draperies, sheets, towels, and other cloth needs, so making material took much time and work and people had only a few sets of clothing. Girls would have learned to spin starting at age six. Boys wore shirts and pants made of cotton or buckskin, and girls wore skirts or dresses, usually made of brightly colored cotton called calico or gingham, with stripes, checks, or flowers in different colors. Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, is self-pollinating, and is considered a perennial. An average boll contains nearly 500,000 fibers of cotton, and each plant may bear up to 100 bolls; the boll is a protective case around the seeds. Although fiber is the most valuable product from a cotton field, the plant also provides many products for human and animal consumption: fiber is woven into apparel and home textiles, seeds are used as high-quality feed for cows, and seeds can be pressed into cottonseed oil for cooking, cosmetics, soap, and food products like chips and salad dressing. Cotton by-products appear in items ranging from ice cream and wallpaper to hot dog casings, baseballs, cotton swabs, wipes, and disposable diapers. The United States cotton industry exports 6 million to 9 million bales of raw cotton every year, and the annual value of cotton exceeded $3 billion. Today, cotton is still grown in the Florida panhandle as a fiber crop.

Christmas, Florida · United States