Sunday, October 8, 2017

Cotton



Near Kingstree, South Carolina, miles and miles of cotton fields
After the relentless march of the boll weevil across the South, the resurrection of one of our state's top crops has taken a hundred years.  Most of the cotton is ripe now and drying, 250,000 acres of a fluffy blanket of white in the distance.  


Even if you don't wear cotton clothing, you consume cotton. It's in your ice cream, your toothpaste, potato chips, pretzels, and cookies, your cosmetics and plastics.  

The paper money you carry around?  75% U.S. cotton!

If you live in the U.S., much of it comes from South Carolina.






Salter, SC, sharecropper's cabin

With a moderate summer, adequate rainfall, and a little mercy from Hurricane Irma, South Carolina farmers stand ready to harvest their biggest cotton crop ever.

13 comments:

  1. My mom picked cotton and said it was the hardest job she'd ever had.

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  2. So that's what it looks like! I can't recall seeing pictures of it growing in the field before, though I'm certain I must've written essays about it at school.

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  3. Aussie notes (Money) are all plastic so no US cotton in them!

    Good to know that the cotton crop will improve the economy of South
    Carolina farmers.............farmers deserve all that the monetary rewards after
    all their hard work and then relying on the damn weather's co-operation.
    Cheers
    Colin

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  4. What??? Cotton in ice cream and toothpaste? Oh my gosh!

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  5. They are beautiful fields, I hope the crop has a wonderful harvest! :)

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  6. The cotton looks good, haven't seen it in full bloom as we don't travel up north where it's grown in the summer time.

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  7. I hadn't realized that the cotton industry was being 'revived'; good to hear that it is going well. A very interesting post Cynthia!

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  8. Such a lovely photo of the cotton field. Hopefully the weather will hold and they will get the harvest in. I had no idea it was in ice cream and toothpaste.

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  9. It sure look pretty in the field, doesn't it? Love the vines growing up the front of the sharecropper's cabin.

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  10. I knew cotton was in our currency but in our food! How disgusting.

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  11. You seem to have sorted your problem blogging. Glad the hurricane missed the cotton fields. It must be so interesting watching these different crops grow.

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  12. Beautiful cotton fields. Mom used to tell us stories of when she picked it when she was young. After picking, it was taken to Boydton and a man would put it through a cotton gin to get the seeds out. She said it made her fingers bleed. Love your pictures you shared.

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  13. Lashing view!!!

    Wow you are quite aware of cotton usage my friend!
    now i know that i am only not eating it .

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