COTTON INDUSTRY

Cotton: The Perennial Patriot

Pamphlet from The National Cotton Council of America Education Pages http://www.cotton.org/pubs/cottoncounts/resources.cfm

Brief 3 page history of cotton in America. Includes the following quote:

"While the cotton industry was making vital contributions to the nation in peacetime, it proved indispensable to the national defense in time of international conflict. In World War I, cotton linters-the residual fiber left on cottonseed after ginning-emerged as an important source of cellulose for making smoke-less gun powder. And World War II, cotton moved swiftly to meet the nation’s needs for expanded quantities of food, feed, and fiber. Six months after the U.S. entered the war, the cotton textile industry had turned 69 percent of its equipment to producing items essential to the nation’s war effort. In all, more than 11,000 cotton products appeared on the Army Quartermaster Corps; procurement list."

http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/imagegallery.php?EntryID=S011 "Cottonseed and cotton linters, earlier discarded, became valuable products as the cottonseed oil business emerged with the new industrial focus on chemical production. Likewise, World War I put new emphasis on cotton linters in the production of smokeless powder, while the development of rayon fiber added to the value of the cotton by-product."