Cotton grows in warm climates and is mostly grown in the U.S., the Soviet Union, the Peoples Republic of China, and India. Other leading cotton growing countries are Brazil, Pakistan, and Turkey.

In this country the fourteen major cotton producing states are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas. Some cotton is also produced in Florida, Kansas, and Virginia.

The yield in the U.S. now averages approximately one and one third bales per acre. In the United States, a bale weighs around five hundred pounds. The yield is about twice as much as it was in 1950 because of better land use, improved plant varieties, mechanization, fertilization, technology, irrigation, and newly devoloped products. It also is a result of much better control of disease, weeds, and insects. Farmers have seen a need to increase their cotton yields because of lower crop prices as well as the rising cost of products used to grow the crop.

History of Cotton Importance of Cotton Where Cotton is Grown How Cotton is Grown

How Cotton is Spun and Woven How Cotton is Ginned and Marketed