From the archive record
Cotton processing factory in India. One can see workers carrying cotton in baskets. Other workers sit around on the mountains of cotton and chit-chat with each other... Kids play around on the piles of white. Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. Under natural conditions, the cotton bolls will tend to increase the dispersion of the seeds. The plant is a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, Africa, and India. The greatest diversity of wild cotton species is found in Mexico, followed by Australia and Africa.Cotton was independently domesticated in the Old and New Worlds. The fiber is most often spun in