Misplaced Pages

#902097

121-480: Gossypium barbadense is one of several species of cotton . It is in the mallow family. It has been cultivated since antiquity, but has been especially prized since a form with particularly long fibers was developed in the 19th century. Other names associated with this species include Sea Island , Egyptian , Pima , and extra-long staple (ELS) cotton. The species is a tropical, frost-sensitive perennial that produces yellow flowers and has black seeds. It grows as

242-500: A male oral contraceptive in China . In addition to its putative contraceptive properties, gossypol has also long been known to possess antimalarial properties. Utilization of cotton-seed oil in the 19th century was complicated by the fact that it stained everything. In 1882-1883 James Longmore from Liverpool took several patents on separating the colorant by partial saponification of the oil, and in 1886 he presented his findings to

363-554: A bush or small tree and yields cotton with unusually long, silky fibers. G. barbadense originated in southwest Ecuador and northwest Peru. It is now cultivated around the world, including China, Egypt, Sudan, India, Australia, Peru, Israel, the southwestern United States, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. It accounts for about 5% of the world's cotton production. Linnaeus is given credit for describing Gossypium barbadense ("cotton encountered in Barbados"). Today, this name

484-544: A commercial chain in which raw cotton fibers were (at first) purchased from colonial plantations , processed into cotton cloth in the mills of Lancashire , and then exported on British ships to captive colonial markets in West Africa , India , and China (via Shanghai and Hong Kong). By the 1840s, India was no longer capable of supplying the vast quantities of cotton fibers needed by mechanized British factories, while shipping bulky, low-price cotton from India to Britain

605-734: A deficit spiral that led to the country declaring bankruptcy in 1876, a key factor behind Egypt's occupation by the British Empire in 1882 . During this time, cotton cultivation in the British Empire , especially Australia and India, greatly increased to replace the lost production of the American South. Through tariffs and other restrictions, the British government discouraged the production of cotton cloth in India; rather,

726-616: A farmer who farmed one of the biggest cotton operations. He produced over sixty thousand bales. Cotton remained a key crop in the Southern economy after slavery ended in 1865. Across the South, sharecropping evolved, in which landless farmers worked land owned by others in return for a share of the profits. Some farmers rented the land and bore the production costs themselves. Until mechanical cotton pickers were developed, cotton farmers needed additional labor to hand-pick cotton. Picking cotton

847-405: A few other New World cotton species arose from the same ancestor. One form of G. barbadense has been recognized as a variety. Var brasiliense is called "kidney seed cotton" because its seeds are fused together into somewhat kidney-shaped masses. G. barbadense , like other cottons, forms a small bush in its first year. In cultivation, it is treated as an annual. If allowed to, it can grow into

968-531: A find in Ancon, to c.  4200 BC , and was the backbone of the development of coastal cultures such as the Norte Chico , Moche , and Nazca . Cotton was grown upriver, made into nets, and traded with fishing villages along the coast for large supplies of fish. The Spanish who came to Mexico and Peru in the early 16th century found the people growing cotton and wearing clothing made of it. The Greeks and

1089-576: A garden in Cairo. Based on its description, it seems likely it was the recently developed long fiber kind of G. barbadense from the New World. Encouraged by the success of Jumel's cotton, Egyptians tested other seeds, including Sea Island. The next major cultivar in Egypt, "early Ashmouni," likely was a hybrid between Jumel and a Sea Island cultivar. Likewise, the following major cultivar, "Mit Afifi," likely

1210-725: A good noninvasive alternative to surgical vasectomy . In 1986, in conjunction with the Chinese Ministry of Public Health and the Rockefeller Foundation , the World Health Organization formalized a decision to discontinue research into gossypol as a male contraceptive drug. In addition to the other side effects, the WHO researchers were concerned about gossypol's toxicity: the LD 50 in primates

1331-487: A great deal of resources would have been required, likely restricting its cultivation to the elite. In the first to third centuries CE, recovered cotton fragments all began to mirror the same style and production method, as seen from the direction of spun cotton and technique of weaving. Cotton textiles also appear in places of high regard, such as on funerary stelae and statues. During the Han dynasty (207 BC - 220 AD), cotton

SECTION 10

#1732783013903

1452-603: A large bush or even a small tree of height 1–3 m. Leaves are mostly 8–20 cm long, with 3-7 lobes. One distinction between G. barbadense and the more commonly cultivated G. hirsutum is that G. barbadense has three to five lobes whereas G. hirsutum has only three. The lobes of G. barbadense' s are also more deeply cut, about two-thirds the length of the leaf, as opposed to one half for G. hirsutum . Cotton flowers are showy, with five petals that open only partially. The petals are up to 8 cm long, usually yellow. The petals of Sea Island cultivars typically are creamy yellow with

1573-454: A lesser extent "Pima" have been degraded by items made of lower quality fiber. To overcome this difficulty, a group of American Pima growers established the name Supima for finished products. This group of growers hold trademark rights, enabling them to enforce quality and origin requirements for Supima products. Small quantities of Tanguis and other short-fibered cultivars are grown for specialized purposes. G. barbadense can be used as

1694-418: A more important commodity crop. Sea Island planters could buy seed to plant each year, or they could plant seed saved from the previous year. Named cultivars resulted when particular planters gained a reputation for selecting the best seed to replant. Examples include "Seabrook", named after plantation proprietor William Seabrook, and "Bleak Hall", named after the plantation John Townsend managed. An incident in

1815-422: A new market for British goods, while the capital amassed from Bengal after its 1757 conquest was used to invest in British industries such as textile manufacturing and greatly increase British wealth. British colonization also forced open the large Indian market to British goods, which could be sold in India without tariffs or duties , compared to local Indian producers who were heavily taxed , while raw cotton

1936-501: A new revenue system that was biased in favour of higher value cash crops such as cotton and indigo , providing state incentives to grow cash crops, in addition to rising market demand. The largest manufacturing industry in the Mughal Empire was cotton textile manufacturing , which included the production of piece goods , calicos , and muslins , available unbleached and in a variety of colours. The cotton textile industry

2057-596: A number of other cotton seed companies selling GM cotton around the world. About 62% of the GM cotton grown from 1996 to 2011 was insect resistant, 24% stacked product and 14% herbicide resistant. Cotton has gossypol , a toxin that makes it inedible. However, scientists have silenced the gene that produces the toxin, making it a potential food crop. On 17 October 2018, the USDA deregulated GE low-gossypol cotton. Gossypol Among other applications, it has been tested as

2178-478: A phenolic oxidative coupling , ortho to the phenol groups, to form gossypol ( 8 ). The coupling is catalyzed by a hydrogen peroxide -dependent peroxidase enzyme, which results in the final product. A 1929 investigation in Jiangxi showed correlation between low fertility in males and use of crude cottonseed oil for cooking. The compound causing the contraceptive effect was determined to be gossypol. In

2299-410: A red spot at the base, and as they wither, they turn rose pink. Like other members of the mallow family, the flowers have many stamens, which are merged to form a cylinder around the style. The seeds and fiber form in a capsule called a "bole". Each bole is divided into three parts, each of which produce 5-8 seeds. The seeds are 8-10 mm long. Thousands of years of cultivation have dramatically changed

2420-566: A result of the Chinese diet or genetic predisposition. In the mid-1990s, the Brazilian pharmaceutical company Hebron announced plans to market a low-dose gossypol pill called Nofertil, but the pill never came to market. Its release was indefinitely postponed due to unacceptably high rates of permanent infertility. 5% to 25% of the men remained azoospermic up to a year after stopping treatment. Researchers have suggested gossypol might make

2541-523: A small area near the Guayas Estuary in Ecuador and an island off of Manta, Ecuador . It can be grown as a perennial throughout the tropics. It is sensitive to frost. Nevertheless, it can be grown as an annual in regions where the summers are long enough for the bolls to mature. The earliest known evidence of human use of G. barbadense has been along the coast of present-day Ecuador and Peru. It

SECTION 20

#1732783013903

2662-431: A source of cottonseed oil and animal feed. However, other kinds of cotton generally are preferred because G. barbadense seeds contain more of the undesirable substance gossypol . Cotton Cotton (from Arabic al-qutn ) is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll , or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus Gossypium in the mallow family Malvaceae . The fiber

2783-414: Is a member of the mallow family, Malvaceae . Authors differ on the ranks between family and genus. A recent example that considers cladistics is Bayer et al. (1999). In this system, G. barbadense and other cottons fall in the subfamily Malvoideae and tribe Gossypiae . The tribe Gossypiae includes the cottons and other species that produce the substance gossypol . The genus Gossypium encompasses

2904-542: Is almost pure cellulose , and can contain minor percentages of waxes , fats , pectins , and water . Under natural conditions, the cotton bolls will increase the dispersal of the seeds. The plant is a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, Africa, Egypt and India. The greatest diversity of wild cotton species is found in Mexico, followed by Australia and Africa. Cotton

3025-575: Is grown chiefly in California, with small acreages in West Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. Although Tanguis represents a tiny fraction of the worldwide market, it is remarkable because it was developed relatively recently from local populations in G. barbadense' s home territory of Peru. Although it produces fiber shorter and rougher than other modern market classes, it has unique properties useful for certain industrial applications. It accounts for

3146-622: Is ineffective against many cotton pests, such as plant bugs , stink bugs , and aphids ; depending on circumstances it may still be desirable to use insecticides against these. A 2006 study done by Cornell researchers, the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy and the Chinese Academy of Science on Bt cotton farming in China found that after seven years these secondary pests that were normally controlled by pesticide had increased, necessitating

3267-622: Is less than 10 times the contraceptive dose, creating a small therapeutic window . This report effectively ended further studies of gossypol as a temporary contraceptive, but research into using it as an alternative to vasectomy continues in Austria, Brazil, Chile, China, the Dominican Republic, and Nigeria. Food and animal agricultural industries must manage cotton-derivative product levels to avoid toxicity. For example, only ruminant microflora can digest gossypol, and then only to

3388-403: Is now cultivated around the world, including China, Egypt, Sudan, India, Australia, Peru, Israel, the southwestern United States, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The species accounts for about 5% of the world's cotton production. Certain regions specialize in G. barbadense . One reason is to prevent different species of cotton from hybridizing with each other. If a field of G. barbadense

3509-431: Is oxidized to 2 by (+)-δ-cadinene synthase . The (+)-δ-cadinene ( 2 ) is involved in making the basic aromatic sesquiterpene unit, homigossypol, by oxidation, which generates the 3 (8-hydroxy-δ-cadinene) with the help of (+)-δ-cadinene 8-hyroxylase. Compound 3 goes through various oxidative processes to make 4 (deoxyhemigossypol), which is oxidized by one electron into hemigossypol ( 5 , 6 , 7 ) and then undergoes

3630-471: Is plausible humans in that area were also the first to domesticate the species. However, available evidence, such as seeds found in the floors of ancient houses, could be the result of either cultivated or wild-gathered cotton. So far, archaeologists have found evidence of widespread use in this region about 5000 years ago. Further, they have strong evidence at a few sites dating back 5500 years, and weaker evidence as far back as 7800 years. Investigators at one of

3751-571: Is the domestication of Gossypium hirsutum in Mexico between around 3400 and 2300 BC. During this time, people between the Río Santiago and the Río Balsas grew, spun, wove, dyed, and sewed cotton. What they did not use themselves, they sent to their Aztec rulers as tribute, on the scale of ~116 million pounds (53,000 tonnes) annually. In Peru , cultivation of the indigenous cotton species Gossypium barbadense has been dated, from

Gossypium barbadense - Misplaced Pages Continue

3872-464: Is too close to a field of a different species, the result is generally poor quality of the fiber. Traders in cotton have developed several broad categories called market classes. These categories are based on the characteristics of the fiber and the region where they are produced. In the United States, some market classes have been formalized in law. Sea Island is a historical market class. It

3993-413: Is universally accepted; however, there is some question whether the modern definition matches what Linnaeus described. Paul A. Fryxell argues, although the evidence surviving from Linnaeus's time is less than ideal, the name is applied correctly. On the other hand, Y. I. Prokhanov and G. K. Brizicky argue that Linnaeus never actually saw any examples of the species we now call G. barbadense . The species

4114-649: The Deep South . To acknowledge cotton's place in the history and heritage of Texas, the Texas Legislature designated cotton the official "State Fiber and Fabric of Texas" in 1997. China's Chang'e 4 spacecraft took cotton seeds to the Moon's far side . On 15 January 2019, China announced that a cotton seed sprouted, the first "truly otherworldly plant in history". Inside the Von Kármán Crater ,

4235-473: The Delhi Sultanate . During the late medieval period, cotton became known as an imported fiber in northern Europe, without any knowledge of how it was derived, other than that it was a plant. Because Herodotus had written in his Histories , Book III, 106, that in India trees grew in the wild producing wool, it was assumed that the plant was a tree, rather than a shrub. This aspect is retained in

4356-532: The Industrial Revolution in Britain provided a great boost to cotton manufacture, as textiles emerged as Britain's leading export. In 1738, Lewis Paul and John Wyatt , of Birmingham , England, patented the roller spinning machine, as well as the flyer-and-bobbin system for drawing cotton to a more even thickness using two sets of rollers that traveled at different speeds. Later, the invention of

4477-469: The James Hargreaves ' spinning jenny in 1764, Richard Arkwright 's spinning frame in 1769 and Samuel Crompton 's spinning mule in 1775 enabled British spinners to produce cotton yarn at much higher rates. From the late 18th century on, the British city of Manchester acquired the nickname " Cottonopolis " due to the cotton industry's omnipresence within the city, and Manchester's role as

4598-724: The Neolithic site of Mehrgarh , at the foot of the Bolan Pass in ancient India , today in Balochistan Pakistan. Fragments of cotton textiles have been found at Mohenjo-daro and other sites of the Bronze Age Indus Valley civilization , and cotton may have been an important export from it. Cotton bolls discovered in a cave near Tehuacán , Mexico, have been dated to as early as 5500 BC, but this date has been challenged. More securely dated

4719-414: The cotton gin by the end of the 18th century utterly changed the production of cotton as a commodity crop. It made processing of short-staple cotton profitable. This cotton, known as upland cotton ( Gossypium hirsutum ), could be grown successfully in the interior uplands. Short-staple cotton became the prime commodity crop of the developing Deep South, and King Cotton was the basis of southern wealth in

4840-562: The 1650s, Barbados had become the first English colony in the West Indies to export cotton to Europe. By the late 1700s and early 1800s, G. barbadense was a major commercial crop in the West Indies. After the early 19th century, it was mostly supplanted as a cash crop by sugar cane . There have been a few periods since the early 1800s when cotton production has been attractive in the West Indies, but generally sugar cane has been more profitable. Cotton traders use many systems to classify

4961-511: The 1840s. Indian cotton textiles, particularly those from Bengal , continued to maintain a competitive advantage up until the 19th century. In order to compete with India, Britain invested in labour-saving technical progress, while implementing protectionist policies such as bans and tariffs to restrict Indian imports. At the same time, the East India Company's rule in India contributed to its deindustrialization , opening up

Gossypium barbadense - Misplaced Pages Continue

5082-1168: The 1970s, the Chinese government began researching the use of gossypol as a contraceptive . Their studies involved over 10,000 subjects, and continued for over a decade. They concluded that gossypol provided reliable contraception, could be taken orally as a tablet, and did not upset men's balance of hormones. However, gossypol also had serious flaws. The studies also discovered an abnormally high rate (0.75%) of hypokalemia (low blood potassium levels) among subjects. Hypokalemia causes symptoms of fatigue , muscle weakness, and at its most extreme, paralysis . In addition, about 7% of subjects reported effects on their digestive systems , about 12% had increased fatigue, some subjects experienced impotence or reduced libido, and 9.9% became irreversibly infertile, apparently associated with longer treatment and greater total dose of gossypol. Most subjects recovered after stopping treatment and taking potassium supplements. The same study showed taking potassium supplements during gossypol treatment did not prevent hypokalemia in primates . The potassium deficiency may also be

5203-504: The 19th century. India's cotton-processing sector changed during EIC expansion in India in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. From focusing on supplying the British market to supplying East Asia with raw cotton. As the Artisan produced textiles were no longer competitive with those produced Industrially, and Europe preferring the cheaper slave produced, long staple American, and Egyptian cottons, for its own materials. The advent of

5324-708: The Arabs were not familiar with cotton until the Wars of Alexander the Great , as his contemporary Megasthenes told Seleucus I Nicator of "there being trees on which wool grows" in "Indica." This may be a reference to "tree cotton", Gossypium arboreum , which is native to the Indian subcontinent. According to the Columbia Encyclopedia : Cotton has been spun, woven, and dyed since prehistoric times. It clothed

5445-668: The British to cheap calico and chintz cloth on the restoration of the monarchy in the 1660s. Initially imported as a novelty side line, from its spice trading posts in Asia, the cheap colourful cloth proved popular and overtook the EIC's spice trade by value in the late 17th century. The EIC embraced the demand, particularly for calico , by expanding its factories in Asia and producing and importing cloth in bulk, creating competition for domestic woollen and linen textile producers. The impacted weavers, spinners, dyers, shepherds and farmers objected and

5566-633: The Egyptian cotton industry. By the time of the American Civil war annual exports had reached $ 16 million (120,000 bales), which rose to $ 56 million by 1864, primarily due to the loss of the Confederate supply on the world market. Exports continued to grow even after the reintroduction of US cotton, produced now by a paid workforce, and Egyptian exports reached 1.2 million bales a year by 1903. The English East India Company (EIC) introduced

5687-495: The Mughal era. It was reported that, with an Indian cotton gin, which is half machine and half tool, one man and one woman could clean 28 pounds (13 kg) of cotton per day. With a modified Forbes version, one man and a boy could produce 250 pounds (110 kg) per day. If oxen were used to power 16 of these machines, and a few people's labour was used to feed them, they could produce as much work as 750 people did formerly. In

5808-468: The Northern and Southern hemispheres, but a large proportion of the cotton grown today is cultivated in areas with less rainfall that obtain the water from irrigation. Production of the crop for a given year usually starts soon after harvesting the preceding autumn. Cotton is naturally a perennial but is grown as an annual to help control pests. Planting time in spring in the Northern hemisphere varies from

5929-479: The Sea Islands is that the cotton in the Sea Islands came from the West Indies, an area where all the cultivated cotton was short fiber (by today's standards) and required a long growing season. A distinctive cotton could not be developed in the Sea Islands, at least not by the methods of hybridization or selection, because frost killed the plants before they had a chance to produce seed. One possible explanation

6050-554: The USDA, David Fairchild visited Egypt in 1902 and brought back a few Egyptian cultivars. A USDA team led by Thomas H. Kearney selected among these cultivars, and after a decade of refinement, released the first cultivar successful in the southwestern United States. This first commercially successful cultivar was named "Yuma", after the Arizona town near the experiment station where it was developed. Kearney's second successful cultivar

6171-477: The United States, even with the use of humans as slave labor. The gin that Whitney manufactured (the Holmes design) reduced the hours down to just a dozen or so per bale. Although Whitney patented his own design for a cotton gin, he manufactured a prior design from Henry Odgen Holmes, for which Holmes filed a patent in 1796. Improving technology and increasing control of world markets allowed British traders to develop

SECTION 50

#1732783013903

6292-619: The antebellum years. This cotton in the early 21st century represents about 95% of U.S. production. Among the earliest planters of Sea Island cotton in North America was an Englishman, Francis Levett . Other cotton planters came from Barbados. At the outbreak of the American Revolution, Levett left his Georgia plantation and went to the Bahamas . He attempted to introduce cotton production, but failed. Sugar cane had been

6413-598: The backbone of the southern American economy. In the United States, cultivating and harvesting cotton became the leading occupation of slaves . During the American Civil War , American cotton exports slumped due to a Union blockade on Southern ports , and because of a strategic decision by the Confederate government to cut exports, hoping to force Britain to recognize the Confederacy or enter

6534-424: The basis of a new indigenous industry, initially producing Fustian for the domestic market, though more importantly triggering the development of a series of mechanised spinning and weaving technologies, to process the material. This mechanised production was concentrated in new cotton mills , which slowly expanded until by the beginning of the 1770s seven thousand bales of cotton were imported annually, and pressure

6655-645: The beginning of February to the beginning of June. The area of the United States known as the South Plains is the largest contiguous cotton-growing region in the world. While dryland (non-irrigated) cotton is successfully grown in this region, consistent yields are only produced with heavy reliance on irrigation water drawn from the Ogallala Aquifer . Since cotton is somewhat salt and drought tolerant, this makes it an attractive crop for arid and semiarid regions. As water resources get tighter around

6776-461: The bolls open when they mature, revealing showy "snowballs" of fiber. All cottons contain gossypol , although some cultivars of G. hirsutum have been selected to minimize this chemical. Those cultivars are more susceptible to insect pests, which suggests the natural purpose of gossypol is to deter pests. The impact of gossypol in agriculture is it makes cotton plants poisonous to non-ruminant animals. Wild forms of G. barbadense have been found in

6897-434: The calico question became one of the major issues of National politics between the 1680s and the 1730s. Parliament began to see a decline in domestic textile sales, and an increase in imported textiles from places like China and India . Seeing the East India Company and their textile importation as a threat to domestic textile businesses, Parliament passed the 1700 Calico Act, blocking the importation of cotton cloth. As there

7018-479: The capsule and seeds sit inside the Chang'e 4 lander. Successful cultivation of cotton requires a long frost -free period, plenty of sunshine, and a moderate rainfall, usually from 50 to 100 cm (19.5 to 39.5 in). Soils usually need to be fairly heavy , although the level of nutrients does not need to be exceptional. In general, these conditions are met within the seasonally dry tropics and subtropics in

7139-430: The circa 5500 year-old sites, in the Ñachoc valley in northern Peru, argue that domestication did not happen there, therefore G. barbasense was domesticated elsewhere and then brought to Ñachoc. By 1000 BCE, Peruvian cotton bolls were indistinguishable from modern cultivars of G. barbadense . Native Americans grew cotton widely throughout South America and in the West Indies, where Christopher Columbus encountered it. At

7260-443: The coasts of South Carolina and Georgia, especially by the late 18th century. Sea Island cotton commanded the highest price of all the cottons because of its long staple (1.5 to 2.5 inches, 38 to 64 mm) and silky texture; it was used for the finest cotton counts and often mixed with silk . Although planters tried to grow it on the uplands of Georgia, the quality was inferior, and it was too expensive to process. The invention of

7381-423: The cords of automobile tires and cloth for aircraft wings. It is also used for sewing machine thread. G. barbadense fiber is also used for some luxury goods where the fiber qualities are less important than the reputation of the best quality materials. Sometimes the same names that are used to describe market classes are also used to describe finished items. However, the reputations of the names "Egyptian" and to

SECTION 60

#1732783013903

7502-455: The cottons. The genus can be divided by chromosome count. Subgenus Karpas has 52 chromosomes (four sets of 13). This subgenus encompasses G. barbadense , along with G. hirsutum and a few other New World cottons. In comparison, the commercially important Old World cottons have 26 chromosomes. Most botanists that study Gossypium believe the group of cottons with 52 chromosomes form a clade. In other words, G. barbadense , G. hirsutum , and

7623-560: The dual-roller gin was prevalent throughout the Mediterranean cotton trade by the 16th century. This mechanical device was, in some areas, driven by water power. The earliest clear illustrations of the spinning wheel come from the Islamic world in the eleventh century. The earliest unambiguous reference to a spinning wheel in India is dated to 1350, suggesting that the spinning wheel was likely introduced from Iran to India during

7744-521: The early 19th century had the fifth most productive cotton industry in the world, in terms of the number of spindles per capita. The industry was initially driven by machinery that relied on traditional energy sources, such as animal power , water wheels , and windmills , which were also the principal energy sources in Western Europe up until around 1870. It was under Muhammad Ali in the early 19th century that steam engines were introduced to

7865-650: The early 19th century, a Frenchman named M. Jumel proposed to the great ruler of Egypt, Mohamed Ali Pasha , that he could earn a substantial income by growing an extra-long staple Maho ( Gossypium barbadense ) cotton, in Lower Egypt , for the French market. Mohamed Ali Pasha accepted the proposition and granted himself the monopoly on the sale and export of cotton in Egypt ; and later dictated cotton should be grown in preference to other crops. Egypt under Muhammad Ali in

7986-499: The early 20th century illustrates the importance of seed selection. The best seed selectors, in order to stop planters in the West Indies from benefiting from their work, they quit selling seed, even to their neighbors. This resulted in a decline in quality across the Sea Island region. Sea island never fully recovered from the disruptions of the U.S. Civil War. In the early 20th century, the boll weevil caused tremendous damage in

8107-596: The endes of its branches. These branches were so pliable that they bent down to allow the lambs to feed when they are hungry." (See Vegetable Lamb of Tartary .) Cotton manufacture was introduced to Europe during the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula and Sicily . The knowledge of cotton weaving was spread to northern Italy in the 12th century, when Sicily was conquered by the Normans , and consequently to

8228-537: The fiber in cotton plants. Wild cottons have very little fiber, so little it might not be noticed. The fiber emanates from each seed. The purpose of the fiber to wild plants is unknown. Domesticated cottons have much more fiber. Besides the more obvious long fibers, domesticated cotton seeds have short fibers called "linters". Some cultivars of G. barbadense have so few of these short hairs they are often called "lintless". They can also be called "smooth-seeded" as opposed to "fuzzy-seeded" G. hirsutum . As with all cottons,

8349-544: The fourth largest GM cotton crop area of 2.6 million hectares in 2011. The initial introduction of GM cotton proved to be a success in Australia ;– the yields were equivalent to the non-transgenic varieties and the crop used much less pesticide to produce (85% reduction). The subsequent introduction of a second variety of GM cotton led to increases in GM cotton production until 95% of the Australian cotton crop

8470-512: The genetics of white cotton have led many cotton-growing locations to ban the growing of colored cotton varieties. The word "cotton" has Arabic origins , derived from the Arabic word قطن ( qutn or qutun ). This was the usual word for cotton in medieval Arabic . Marco Polo in chapter 2 in his book, describes a province he calls Khotan in Turkestan, today's Xinjiang , where cotton

8591-568: The heart of the global cotton trade. Production capacity in Britain and the United States was improved by the invention of the modern cotton gin by the American Eli Whitney in 1793. Before the development of cotton gins, the cotton fibers had to be pulled from the seeds tediously by hand. By the late 1700s, a number of crude ginning machines had been developed. However, to produce a bale of cotton required over 600 hours of human labor, making large-scale production uneconomical in

8712-703: The knowledge of its spinning and weaving in Meroë reached a high level. The export of textiles was one of the sources of wealth for Meroë. Ancient Nubia had a "culture of cotton" of sorts, evidenced by physical evidence of cotton processing tools and the presence of cattle in certain areas. Some researchers propose that cotton was important to the Nubian economy for its use in contact with the neighboring Egyptians. Aksumite King Ezana boasted in his inscription that he destroyed large cotton plantations in Meroë during his conquest of

8833-423: The largest exporter for many years. There are four commercially grown species of cotton, all domesticated in antiquity: Hybrid varieties are also cultivated. The two New World cotton species account for the vast majority of modern cotton production, but the two Old World species were widely used before the 1900s. While cotton fibers occur naturally in colors of white, brown, pink and green, fears of contaminating

8954-502: The local section of the Society of Chemical Industry . He is often considered the discoverer of gossypol, even though he only isolated it in crude form. The name was coined in 1899 by Leon Marchlewski , who first purified the compound and studied some of its chemical properties. F. E. Withers and F. E. Caruth first attributed the toxic properties of the cotton seed (known since the 19th c.) to gossypol in 1915, and its chemical formula

9075-519: The long, fine fiber G. barbadense of today. However, since this event could not have happened in the Sea Islands, it is not sufficient to explain the Sea Islands' distinctive product. Unusual weather in 1785 and 1786 helped develop G. barbadense production in the Sea Islands. According to historical records, planters in Georgia were trying to introduce G. barbadense , but the plants would die from frost before they could produce seed or fiber. However,

9196-477: The main pests in commercial cotton are lepidopteran larvae, which are killed by the Bt protein in the transgenic cotton they eat. This eliminates the need to use large amounts of broad-spectrum insecticides to kill lepidopteran pests (some of which have developed pyrethroid resistance). This spares natural insect predators in the farm ecology and further contributes to noninsecticide pest management. However, Bt cotton

9317-482: The major products of Persia, including cotton. John Chardin , a French traveler of the 17th century who visited Safavid Persia , spoke approvingly of the vast cotton farms of Persia. Cotton ( Gossypium herbaceum Linnaeus) may have been domesticated 5000 BC in eastern Sudan near the Middle Nile Basin region, where cotton cloth was being produced. Around the 4th century BC, the cultivation of cotton and

9438-504: The majority of Peru's cotton production (about 80% in 2011). Most G. barbadense production comes from cultivars that produce particularly long fiber, and most of that is made into clothing. Fine (thin) yarn requires long fiber. In turn, this thin yarn is required for intermediate products like lace and high thread-count cloth. The long-fiber cultivars also tend to have particularly strong fibers, making them useful for various industrial products. Historically, G. barbadense has been used for

9559-405: The name for cotton in several Germanic languages, such as German Baumwolle , which translates as "tree wool" ( Baum means "tree"; Wolle means "wool"). Noting its similarities to wool, people in the region could only imagine that cotton must be produced by plant-borne sheep. John Mandeville , writing in 1350, stated as fact that "There grew there [India] a wonderful tree which bore tiny lambs on

9680-480: The new textile industries of the Northeastern United States and northwestern Europe. In 1860 the slogan " Cotton is king " characterized the attitude of Southern leaders toward this monocrop in that Europe would support an independent Confederate States of America in 1861 in order to protect the supply of cotton it needed for its very large textile industry. Russell Griffin of California was

9801-805: The people of ancient India, Egypt, and China. Hundreds of years before the Christian era, cotton textiles were woven in India with matchless skill, and their use spread to the Mediterranean countries. In Iran ( Persia ), the history of cotton dates back to the Achaemenid era (5th century BC); however, there are few sources about the planting of cotton in pre-Islamic Iran. Cotton cultivation was common in Merv , Ray and Pars . In Persian poems, especially Ferdowsi 's Shahname , there are references to cotton ("panbe" in Persian ). Marco Polo (13th century) refers to

9922-700: The quality of cotton fiber. One of the most significant distinctions is "staple length", length of the individual fibers. Traditionally, cultivars of Gossypium barbadense fall into the "long-staple" category. The term extra-long-staple (ELS) first came into use in 1907. The International Cotton Advisory Committee , in an attempt to standardize classification, defined extra-long-staple as 1 + 3 ⁄ 8 inches (35 mm) or longer, and long-staple as 1 + 1 ⁄ 8 to 1 + 5 ⁄ 16 inches (29 to 33 mm). Under this classification scheme, most cultivars of G. barbadense produce extra-long-staple fibers, but some cultivars qualify as long-staple. G. barbadense

10043-410: The raw fiber was sent to England for processing. The Indian Mahatma Gandhi described the process: In the United States, growing Southern cotton generated significant wealth and capital for the antebellum South, as well as raw material for Northern textile industries. Before 1865 the cotton was largely produced through the labor of enslaved African Americans. It enriched both the Southern landowners and

10164-616: The region. In the Meroitic Period (beginning 3rd century BCE), many cotton textiles have been recovered, preserved due to favorable arid conditions. Most of these fabric fragments come from Lower Nubia, and the cotton textiles account for 85% of the archaeological textiles from Classic/Late Meroitic sites. Due to these arid conditions, cotton, a plant that usually thrives moderate rainfall and richer soils, requires extra irrigation and labor in Sudanese climate conditions. Therefore,

10285-662: The rest of Europe. The spinning wheel , introduced to Europe circa 1350, improved the speed of cotton spinning. By the 15th century, Venice , Antwerp , and Haarlem were important ports for cotton trade, and the sale and transportation of cotton fabrics had become very profitable. Under the Mughal Empire , which ruled in the Indian subcontinent from the early 16th century to the early 18th century, Indian cotton production increased, in terms of both raw cotton and cotton textiles. The Mughals introduced agrarian reforms such as

10406-465: The rest of the southeastern United States, specializing in this high-quality G. barbadense . Meanwhile, the rest of the southeastern United States developed its own market class "upland". By 1803, the Charleston SC market recognized class distinctions of Sea Island, South Carolina upland, West Indian, and Mississippi. What was called Sea Island cotton was cultivated on the Sea Islands, along

10527-405: The resulting plant produced fine fibers, but was surprised to find it also had long fiber and short growing season. He then demonstrated this could be rather easily back-hybridized (see introgression ) to form a cotton that retained these desirable characteristics, yet was almost entirely G. barbadense . He argued that such an event could have happened accidentally in the 18th century, resulting in

10648-477: The same region. Since then, most of these regions have transitioned to specialize in a particular kind of cotton, resulting in the distinctive market classes of today. During the 17th century, European colonists in the English West Indies developed cotton as a cash crop for export to Europe, establishing numerous plantations operated by white indentured servants and Black slaves to do so. By

10769-423: The subject of considerable controversy. Nevertheless, developing the market class required developing cultivars that would be productive in the Sea Islands, and developing a product that was distinct from other kinds of cotton. It also required at least some producers and consumers to agree "Sea Island" was a useful category. One of the challenges explaining the development of a long fiber cotton that would thrive in

10890-449: The terms "Egyptian long-staple" and Egyptian extra-long staple" are used, as Egypt and Sudan produce cottons with a variety of fiber lengths. The development of the market class started in 1820, when Jumel's cotton entered commercial production. This was a type of cotton that had been growing in the region for some time, but a French engineer named Jumel recognized its potential as a source of fiber when he saw it growing as an ornamental in

11011-519: The time of Columbus, indigenous peoples of the West Indies raised G. barbadense as a dooryard crop, single plants near residences. The advent of worldwide trade resulted in many kinds of plants being introduced to new places (see Columbian exchange ). In the case of cotton, this exchange happened in all directions, new world cottons to the old world, old world cottons to the new world, and cottons to places which they had never grown before. In some cases, this resulted in multiple kinds of cotton growing in

11132-470: The traditional cotton-growing regions of the United States. Sea Island cultivars were particularly susceptible. Also, wet conditions on the islands moderated soil temperatures, further favoring the insect. Production of Sea Island on a commercial scale ended in 1920. Egyptian is a market class representing G. barbadense grown in Egypt. It also includes crops in Sudan, as Sudan was once part of Egypt. Sometimes

11253-471: The use of pesticides at similar levels to non-Bt cotton and causing less profit for farmers because of the extra expense of GM seeds. However, a 2009 study by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Stanford University and Rutgers University refuted this. They concluded that the GM cotton effectively controlled bollworm. The secondary pests were mostly miridae (plant bugs) whose increase was related to local temperature and rainfall and only continued to increase in half

11374-442: The villages and then taken to towns in the form of yarn to be woven into cloth textiles, was advanced by the diffusion of the spinning wheel across India shortly before the Mughal era, lowering the costs of yarn and helping to increase demand for cotton. The diffusion of the spinning wheel, and the incorporation of the worm gear and crank handle into the roller cotton gin, led to greatly expanded Indian cotton textile production during

11495-506: The villages studied. Moreover, the increase in insecticide use for the control of these secondary insects was far smaller than the reduction in total insecticide use due to Bt cotton adoption. A 2012 Chinese study concluded that Bt cotton halved the use of pesticides and doubled the level of ladybirds, lacewings and spiders. The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) said that, worldwide, GM cotton

11616-543: The war. The Lancashire Cotton Famine prompted the main purchasers of cotton, Britain and France , to turn to Egyptian cotton. British and French traders invested heavily in cotton plantations. The Egyptian government of Viceroy Isma'il took out substantial loans from European bankers and stock exchanges. After the American Civil War ended in 1865, British and French traders abandoned Egyptian cotton and returned to cheap American exports, sending Egypt into

11737-551: The winter of 1785-1786 was particularly mild, so a few plants did succeed in producing seed. The next generation of plants was able to produce seed and fiber before the winter. Historical records credit Kinsey Burden of developing the particularly high-quality cotton that came to be associated with the Sea Islands. He accomplished this in the first decade of the 1800s via seed selection on Burden's Island and Johns Island in South Carolina. The Sea Islands region parted ways with

11858-582: The world, economies that rely on it face difficulties and conflict, as well as potential environmental problems. For example, improper cropping and irrigation practices have led to desertification in areas of Uzbekistan , where cotton is a major export. In the days of the Soviet Union , the Aral Sea was tapped for agricultural irrigation, largely of cotton, and now salination is widespread. Cotton can also be cultivated to have colors other than

11979-529: The world. A long-term study on the economic impacts of Bt cotton in India, published in the Journal PNAS in 2012, showed that Bt cotton has increased yields, profits, and living standards of smallholder farmers. The U.S. GM cotton crop was 4.0 million hectares in 2011 the second largest area in the world, the Chinese GM cotton crop was third largest by area with 3.9 million hectares and Pakistan had

12100-523: The yellowish off-white typical of modern commercial cotton fibers. Naturally colored cotton can come in red, green, and several shades of brown. The water footprint of cotton fibers is substantially larger than for most other plant fibers. Cotton is also known as a thirsty crop; on average, globally, cotton requires 8,000–10,000 liters of water for one kilogram of cotton, and in dry areas, it may require even more such as in some areas of India, it may need 22,500 liters. Genetically modified (GM) cotton

12221-602: Was "Pima". Pima dominated irrigated lands in the southwestern United States from 1918 to as late as 1941, when other cultivars became more popular. It was named either after the Gila River (Pima) Indian Reservation , the home of the cooperative testing and demonstration farm where it was developed or in honor of the Akimel O'odham (Pima Indians), who helped raise the cotton at the demonstration farm. As of 2005, American Pima accounts for less than 5% of U.S. cotton production. It

12342-426: Was GM in 2009 making Australia the country with the fifth largest GM cotton crop in the world. Other GM cotton growing countries in 2011 were Argentina, Myanmar, Burkina Faso, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, South Africa and Costa Rica. Cotton has been genetically modified for resistance to glyphosate a broad-spectrum herbicide discovered by Monsanto which also sells some of the Bt cotton seeds to farmers. There are also

12463-541: Was a hybrid between early Ashmouni and a Sea Island cultivar. Many more cultivars followed. In the last half of the 19th century, cotton production in Egypt grew dramatically because of expansion of irrigation and increased demand because of the United States civil war. Egyptian cotton has been important ever since. Pima is a name often used for cotton grown in the Southwestern United States. This market class consists of extra-long G. barbadense . It

12584-500: Was a source of income for families across the South. Rural and small town school systems had split vacations so children could work in the fields during "cotton-picking." During the middle 20th century, employment in cotton farming fell, as machines began to replace laborers and the South's rural labor force dwindled during the World Wars. Cotton remains a major export of the United States, with large farms in California, Arizona and

12705-465: Was actively marketed from 1790 to 1920. It was grown on the Sea Islands , islands off the coast of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. It once was an important market class. In the markets of Europe, it suffered little competition from cottons with similar characteristics from its inception until the interruption of trade resulting from the U.S. Civil War. The origins of Sea Island cotton has been

12826-459: Was developed to reduce the heavy reliance on pesticides. The bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) naturally produces a chemical harmful only to a small fraction of insects, most notably the larvae of moths and butterflies , beetles , and flies , and harmless to other forms of life. The gene coding for Bt toxin has been inserted into cotton, causing cotton, called Bt cotton , to produce this natural insecticide in its tissues. In many regions,

12947-461: Was established in 1927 by Earl Perry Clark (1892-1943). Gossypol is a terpenoid aldehyde which is formed metabolically through acetate via the isoprenoid pathway . The sesquiterpene dimer undergoes a radical coupling reaction to form gossypol. The biosynthesis begins when geranyl pyrophosphate (GPP) and isopentenyl pyrophosphate (IPP) are combined to make the sesquiterpene precursor farnesyl diphosphate (FPP). The cadinyl cation ( 1 )

13068-401: Was grown by Chinese peoples in the southern Chinese province of Yunnan . Egyptians grew and spun cotton in the first seven centuries of the Christian era. Handheld roller cotton gins had been used in India since the 6th century, and was then introduced to other countries from there. Between the 12th and 14th centuries, dual-roller gins appeared in India and China. The Indian version of

13189-714: Was grown in abundance. The word entered the Romance languages in the mid-12th century, and English a century later. Cotton fabric was known to the ancient Romans as an import, but cotton was rare in the Romance-speaking lands until imports from the Arabic-speaking lands in the later medieval era at transformatively lowered prices. The earliest evidence of the use of cotton in the Old World , dated to 5500 BC and preserved in copper beads, has been found at

13310-418: Was imported from India without tariffs to British factories which manufactured textiles from Indian cotton, giving Britain a monopoly over India's large market and cotton resources. India served as both a significant supplier of raw goods to British manufacturers and a large captive market for British manufactured goods. Britain eventually surpassed India as the world's leading cotton textile manufacturer in

13431-614: Was independently domesticated in the Old and New Worlds. The fiber is most often spun into yarn or thread and used to make a soft, breathable , and durable textile . The use of cotton for fabric is known to date to prehistoric times; fragments of cotton fabric dated to the fifth millennium BC have been found in the Indus Valley civilization , as well as fabric remnants dated back to 4200 BC in Peru . Although cultivated since antiquity, it

13552-451: Was invented in India during the early Delhi Sultanate era of the 13th–14th centuries, came into use in the Mughal Empire some time around the 16th century, and is still used in India through to the present day. Another innovation, the incorporation of the crank handle in the cotton gin, first appeared in India some time during the late Delhi Sultanate or the early Mughal Empire. The production of cotton, which may have largely been spun in

13673-443: Was no punishment for continuing to sell cotton cloth, smuggling of the popular material became commonplace. In 1721, dissatisfied with the results of the first act, Parliament passed a stricter addition, this time prohibiting the sale of most cottons, imported and domestic (exempting only thread Fustian and raw cotton). The exemption of raw cotton from the prohibition initially saw 2 thousand bales of cotton imported annually, to become

13794-489: Was originally known as "American Egyptian", but eventually the name "Pima" became more popular. Since the name "Pima" also has been applied to extra-long staple cotton growing in countries such as Peru, Australia, and Israel, sometimes the name "American Pima" is used to clarify the origin. The name "American Pima" was formally adopted by the United States Government in 1970. The American Pima market class

13915-422: Was planted on an area of 25 million hectares in 2011. This was 69% of the worldwide total area planted in cotton. GM cotton acreage in India grew at a rapid rate, increasing from 50,000 hectares in 2002 to 10.6 million hectares in 2011. The total cotton area in India was 12.1 million hectares in 2011, so GM cotton was grown on 88% of the cotton area. This made India the country with the largest area of GM cotton in

14036-400: Was put on Parliament, by the new mill owners, to remove the prohibition on the production and sale of pure cotton cloth, as they could easily compete with anything the EIC could import. The acts were repealed in 1774, triggering a wave of investment in mill-based cotton spinning and production, doubling the demand for raw cotton within a couple of years, and doubling it again every decade, into

14157-603: Was responsible for a large part of the empire's international trade. India had a 25% share of the global textile trade in the early 18th century. Indian cotton textiles were the most important manufactured goods in world trade in the 18th century, consumed across the world from the Americas to Japan . The most important center of cotton production was the Bengal Subah province, particularly around its capital city of Dhaka . The worm gear roller cotton gin , which

14278-412: Was that the changes happened accidentally in a region with long growing season and then were introduced to the Sea Islands. In the 1960s and 1970s, S. G. Stephens performed an experiment where he hybridized a G. barbadense with short coarse fibers and long growing season with a wild form of G. hirsutum that had the same short fiber and long growing season, but the fibers were fine. It seemed reasonable

14399-407: Was the invention of the cotton gin that lowered the cost of production that led to its widespread use, and it is the most widely used natural fiber cloth in clothing today. Current estimates for world production are about 25 million tonnes or 110 million bales annually, accounting for 2.5% of the world's arable land . India is the world's largest producer of cotton. The United States has been

14520-482: Was the result of government efforts to enable United States farmers to compete in the "Egyptian cotton" market. Circa 1900, the United States led in production of all the major market classes except Egyptian. H. J. Webber and others in the United States Department of Agriculture believed Egyptian long-staple would thrive under irrigation in the deserts of the southwestern United States. On behalf of

14641-461: Was time-consuming and expensive. This, coupled with the emergence of American cotton as a superior type (due to the longer, stronger fibers of the two domesticated native American species, Gossypium hirsutum and Gossypium barbadense ), encouraged British traders to purchase cotton from plantations in the United States and in the Caribbean . By the mid-19th century, " King Cotton " had become

#902097