Cotton is the No. 1 cash crop on the High Plains of Texas.
One bale of cotton weighs about 500 pounds.
Cotton growers on the High Plains produce, on average, 4 million bales per year. That’s about 2/3 of the Texas cotton crop, 1/4 of the nation’s crop, and 4% of the world cotton crop!
An average High Plains cotton crop is enough to make almost a billion pairs of jeans, or 1.738 billion men's sports shirts! That’s enough to make sure everyone in the United States has at least two pairs of jeans!
United States paper currency is made of 75% cotton and 25% linen. So, your money has cotton in it, too!
Cotton is good for all seasons because it keeps the body cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
Cotton isn’t just a fiber crop; it’s a food crop, too! Cottonseed oil is used mainly as a salad or cooking oil.
Thomas Edison tried more than 1,000 different materials before deciding that charred cotton made the ideal filament for the very first light bulb.
The average American owns seven pairs of blue jeans.
Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin during the Industrial Revolution which changed the face of the cotton industry forever.
Cotton has been cultivated and used to make fabrics for at least 7,000 years, and may have existed in Egypt as early as 12,000 B.C.
The Cotton Belt, a chain of the 17 states that grow cotton, spans the southern half of the United States, stretching from Virginia to California. But Texas is the nation’s #1 cotton-producing state.
150 yards of cotton are contained in every baseball – and it’s in hotdogs, ice cream, potato chips, and even bologna!
The Wright Brothers used cotton to cover the wings of their aircraft for the first powered flight in 1903.
Terrycloth is favored for towels because cotton can absorb up to 27 times its own weight in water.
Cotton fiber can be woven or knitted into fabrics such as velvet, corduroy, chambray, velour, jersey and flannel.
Almost all parts of the cotton plant are used in some way, including the cottonseed, lint (raw cotton fiber), stalk and hull (shell). For example, popular uses for cotton fiber include clothing apparel such as denim jeans, socks, towels, t-shirts, bed sheets and underwear, home furnishings and industrial/medical products such as tents, bandages and cotton swabs.
Thanks to all of the organizations included on lubbockag.com for facts and information regarding each industry. Facts and information: National Cotton Council, Cotton Incorporated, the National Agricultural Statistics Service, Texas Corn Producers, National Sorghum Producers, Sorghum Checkoff, Texas Peanut Producers Board, Plains Cotton Cooperative, Plains Cotton Growers
