Cotton is an important crop around the world.  It is used in making clothes and textiles. It is used a lot because it is easy to spin into yarn, and can be washed and dyed.   Cottonseed is also used for furniture padding, cotton swabs, and in the manufacturing of plastics, rayon, and lacquers.  The leftovers [the husks] are used as cattle feed.  The seed centers are used for cottonseed oil.  Other parts of the cotton plant are used for feed, flour, oil refining, and other industrial products.

    Cotton seeds are planted in the spring.  In three weeks flower buds come out.  The cotton plant itself looks like a small tree or shrub and is between two and five feet tall.  The flower bud [called a square] blooms into a white flower.  When the flower dries and falls off, a boll—or seed pod is formed.  Each branch of the cotton plant might grow several bolls.
    Inside the seed pod, there are 20-40 seeds plus white fibers.  When the pod dries and splits open, the fibers and seeds are ready to pick.  After harvest, the leftover stalks and plants are plowed under and left in the ground.  Planting begins between February and June.
    Cotton needs a long growing season, lots of sunshine and water plus drier weather during harvest time.  This means that cotton is most often grown in tropical or subtropical climates.  In the United States, it is grown in the Cotton Belt.  The biggest cotton states are Texas, California, Georgia, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Arizona and North Carolina. Cotton is a big money crop for the United States.  The only crops that are bigger are corn, soybeans, hay and wheat.  Other countries that grow a lot of cotton are China, India, and Pakistan.

Some machines that work on cotton are: