Cotton

COTTON

The crop that I chose is cotton. Cotton did not originate in North Carolina. Columbus discovered Cotton in 1492, growing in the Bahama Islands. Today cotton is used wisely, the many uses are; manufacturing textiles, producing cooking oil, and animal feed. Over the past few years, cotton has become useful in other ways besides making clothes. With the new technology cotton -seed can produce many other products that are useful to customers. The want for cotton is become greater because many people all over the world want and need it. Cotton is grown mostly in the Piedmont and Coastal Plains. You can hardly find any in the Mountain Region. If you were looking for a lot of cotton the place to go would be Eastern North Carolina. The reason cotton is not grown in other sections of the state is because the soil type is bad. The time to plant cotton is in late April. Cotton is harvested in late September, October, and November. Cotton can stand high temperatures, unlike other plants. The main thing that cotton needs to grow is a lot of sunlight, and prefers warm temperatures. The type of soil that cotton likes the most is the sandy soil of the Coastal Plains. The temperature that the cotton wants the soil to be is between 70 and 80 degrees. After the cottonseeds are planted it will normally take 7 to 10 days for the first signs of life to appear. The cotton usually takes 160 to 180 days to fully grow. When the cotton is taken from the ground it is compacted into a 500-pound bale that is stored in a warehouse. After the USDA approves the cotton bale it is transported to the textile mills by trucks. It can now be sold as cloth and other products.