Show Title: Cotton Makes a Comeback
Producer: Bill Kelsey
Time: 27:40
Show begins here:
>>>TODAY ON IMPACT... COTTON MAKES A COMEBACK.
---(We've seen boom to bust, and right now we're sort of back booming again for a while.)---
---(Cotton is becoming a very important crop in the state again. Florida has produced a good little bit of cotton in the past, and our acreage has fell as low as 3,000 acres in the past years. But it is a crop that is good, it produces well for us in this part of Florida.)---
>>>THIS IS IMPACT. A WEEKLY LOOK AT ISSUES AND ANSWERS THAT IMPACT OUR LIVES AND THE WORLD AROUND US. PRODUCED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA'S INSTITUTE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES.
---(music)---
>>>OF COTTON AND THE PEOPLE WHO GREW IT DURING THE CIVIL WAR ERA, MARGARET MITCHELL MAY HAVE SAID IT BEST. "TOMORROW IS ANOTHER DAY," SHE WROTE, CONCLUDING HER EPIC "GONE WITH THE WIND." FOR COTTON, HER TOMORROW IS TODAY, AND WHILE SEVERAL UNCERTAINTIES REMAIN IN MANAGING THIS CROP, RESEARCH IS ELIMINATING PROBLEMS. GROWERS ARE HELPING MEET INCREASING WORLDWIDE DEMAND. Fade to and from black.
---(banjo music)---
>>>HISTORIANS TELL US THAT THE MAKING OF TEXTILES IS AMONG THE OLDEST OF INDUSTRIES. START WITH A FIBER, AS WITH THIS ONE PRODUCED BY SHEEP; TAKE THAT FIBER AND SUBJECT IT TO JUST THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF STRETCHING AND TWISTING, AND YOU HAVE YARN. INTERTWINE, OR WEAVE THE YARN, AND CLOTH RESULTS. WHILE SHEEP HAVE A LONG HISTORY OF PROVIDING FIBERS FOR SUCH CLOTH. ANOTHER FIBER--ONE GROWING AS A FRUIT--WOULD MARK FOR THE TEXTILE INDUSTRY THE EMERGING OF A NEW WORLD. COTTON HAD LONG BEEN GROWN IN INDIA. CAUSING THE HISTORIAN HERODOTUS TO WRITE IN THE FIFTH CENTURY B.C. OF TREES WHICH BEAR FLEECES ON THEIR FRUIT, SURPASSING THOSE OF SHEEP IN BEAUTY AND EXCELLENCE. BUT WORLDWIDE DEMAND FOR COTTON WOULD REMAIN INSIGNIFICANT FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS. IT WOULD TAKE THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION TO MAKE IT AVAILABLE AS AN EVERYDAY FABRIC. AVAILABLE FOR USE BY VIRTUALLY EVERYONE. SEVERAL INVENTORS WOULD HELP SOLVE LONG-RECOGNIZED PROBLEMS WITH COTTON, MAKING IT POSSIBLE FOR CLOTHING TO BE MASS PRODUCED IN MILLS, MANY OF WHICH WERE LOCATED IN NEW ENGLAND. IN TOWNS SUCH AS LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS, MILLS WERE BUILT NEXT TO OR OVER RIVERS AND STREAMS TO HARNESS POWER OF MOVING WATER, TRANSFERRING IT BY WHEELS, PULLEYS AND BELTS TO MACHINERY THROUGHOUT THE BUILDING. BUT WHILE COTTON WAS PROCESSED IN AREAS HAVING AMPLE WATER POWER, ACCESS TO PORTS AND RAILS, THE HUNGER OF SUCH MILL TOWNS FOR COTTON FIBERS WAS CAUSING ANOTHER TRANSITION IN THE AMERICAN SOUTHEAST. HERE, COTTON'S CLIMATIC AND SOIL REQUIREMENTS COULD BE MET. AND HERE, A SCHEME HAD BEEN PUT IN PLACE TO PROVIDE THE VAST AMOUNT OF LABOR THAT WOULD BE REQUIRED TO PLANT, MAINTAIN AND HARVEST THE CROP. AND HERE, A VISITING YANKEE NAMED ELI WHITNEY. HAD SOLVED THE PROBLEM OF EFFICIENTLY PREPARING COTTON FOR SALE TO MILLS THROUGH MECHANICAL REMOVAL OF SEEDS. HE CALLED THE PROCESS GINNING, AND THE FIRST GIN, A SMALL HAND-CRANKED MODEL THAT WOULD BE USED RIGHT ON THE PLANTATION, BECAME KNOWN AS THE WHITNEY GIN. BY THE EARLY 1900s. THE COTTON GIN HAD EVOLVED INTO A FACTORY-LIKE PROCESSING FACILITY SERVING A WIDE AREA OF GROWERS IN THE BEGINNINGS OF WHAT WAS BECOMING THE NEW SOUTH. RECONSTRUCTION HAD EARLIER BROUGHT SUCH CHANGES AS SHARECROPPING TO THE GROWING OF COTTON, IN WHICH FARMERS PAID FOR LAND THEY RENTED BY PROVIDING SHARES OF THEIR CROPS TO THEIR LANDLORDS. COPELAND GRISWOLD IS A COTTON FARMER IN JAY FLORIDA WHO FEELS SUCH DIFFICULT TIMES MAY HAVE HELPED IN HIS PREPARATION FOR GROWING COTTON IN PRESENT DAY SANTA ROSA COUNTY.
>>>COPELAND GRISWOLD, COTTON GROWER: I was born on a cotton farm in Coffee County, Alabama, one of the poorest areas, I guess, in the world. My grand daddy grew cotton, and all his sons, which totaled to be nine, grew cotton. They sharecropped cotton with him, and I guess as a child I developed a love for cotton. And particularly we got to go to the gin at least once a year, is where we bought our clothes and get ice cream. Splurge a little bit. I remember those days just like they was yesterday.
>>>FOR GRISWOLD THERE HAVE BEEN GOOD TIMES AND BAD TIMES IN THE GROWING OF COTTON. BUT HE SAYS THE WORST YEARS WERE EXPERIENCED BY AN EARLIER GENERATION OF COTTON FARMERS; YEARS IN WHICH A TINY BEETLE WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR DEVOURING FIELD AFTER FIELD OF COTTON.
>>>GRISWOLD: The boll weevil was a big problem. That was before, really, my time. My grand daddy said he went broke three times after he was 65 years old. And the boll weevil got him, the depression got him, and then the recession in 1937 got him, after he was 65 years old.
>>>GRISWOLD SAYS THE WEEVIL REPRODUCED SO RAPIDLY--IT LAID EGGS IN THE BOLL OF COTTON PLANTS--THAT ONCE IT WAS ESTABLISHED IN A FIELD, THERE WAS NO STOPPING IT.
>>>GRISWOLD: Well, it ate the fruit off. It's just like a fruit tree. If there's just no peaches or pears or plums, you didn't have any, and that's the way it was with the cotton. The boll weevils just devastated it. So if there wasn't any fruit on it, it was just a total wipeout. You had your investment in it, and you know a lot of people went broke earlier growing cotton because of pests.
>>>PERHAPS THE MOST PROFOUND EFFECT OF THE BOLL WEEVIL WAS EXPERIENCED IN ENTERPRISE, ALABAMA, JUST NORTH OF THE FLORIDA PANHANDLE. THERE ARE FEW TRACES THESE DAYS OF HOW THE WEEVIL BROUGHT HARD TIMES TO THOSE WHO GREW COTTON AND TO FACTORY WORKERS, BANKS AND RAILROADS IN ENTERPRISE. BUT THE WEEVIL IS NOT LIKELY TO BE FORGOTTEN HERE. IN FACT, IN WHAT SOME REFER TO AS A STRANGE TWIST OF FATE, THE WEEVIL IS NOW HONORED IN ENTERPRISE, RIGHT IN THE TOWN SQUARE; HONORED FOR PROVIDING A WAKE UP CALL TO DIVERSIFY ITS ECONOMIC BASE AND NOT BE RELIANT SOLELY ON COTTON. BUT IF AN AREA CAN BE MADE COMPLETELY WEEVIL-FREE. IT'S LIKELY TO REMAIN WEEVIL FREE. SUCH WAS THE THINKING BEHIND THE WEEVIL ERADICATION PROGRAM HAVING ORIGINS IN SOUTH CAROLINA AND NORTH CAROLINA IN THE MID 1980s. RESEARCH HAD SHOWN THAT WEEVILS MAKE ONLY SHORT FLIGHTS, SO IF THEY COULD BE ELIMINATED FROM A REGION, FURTHER INFESTATION WOULD BE UNLIKELY. IN FLORIDA. IT'S NOW EASY TO SEE THE RESULTS OF A PROGRAM THAT HAD CALLED FOR AN ARRANGEMENT IN WHICH FARMERS WOULD CONTRIBUTE TO A FUND FROM WHICH THE GOVERNMENT AGENCIES WOULD HIRE STAFFS AND PURCHASE EQUIPMENT SPECIFICALLY FOR THE PURPOSE OF REMOVING THE WEEVIL.
>>>GRISWOLD: I done what I thought I had to do. I don't have any regrets about it. It is working, and our assessment now is running about five dollars an acre to where in 1984, I was spending over $100 an acre just to control the weevil. The grower's paying 70-percent, so it's not a give-away program. I mean we participate and we pay the lion's share of it. It's working real good. In fact, I haven't seen a weevil since 1988.
>>>BUT INSECTS SOMETIMES HITCH RIDES. MOST ARE KILLED WHEN THEY COME IN CONTACT WITH FAST MOVING VEHICLES AND CAUSE ONLY CONCERN ABOUT DAMAGE TO PAINT, OR RESTRICTION OF AIR TO VEHICLE COOLING systems. BUT SOME SURVIVE SUCH IMPACT AND RESUME THEIR ACTIVITIES AFTER BEING TRANSPORTED, SOMETIMES HUNDREDS OF MILES. SO. IT'S NECESSARY TO ATTRACT AND TRAP WEEVILS THAT MAY HAVE TRAVELED BY WAY OF HIGHWAYS, INTO COTTON GROWING AREAS. THAT'S THE IDEA BEHIND TRAPS THAT ARE STRATEGICALLY PLACED BETWEEN ROADS AND FIELDS.
>>>GRISWOLD: The traps with the pheromone; the sex attractant's still one trap to 10 acres and that's for the monitoring of any that may come into the area through equipment; car radiators. Their flight's not that long. Maybe 30 or 40 miles, and other than that, they're not going to fly in. And it's closely monitored throughout the southeast, and whenever they send up a signal, they spray that block around that trap. The last count I had was sometime last week, and even in the news of north central Alabama we was looking at point-one-eight weevils per acre. That's essentially none. But ours is zero here.
>>>IN THE MIDDLE OF THE GROWING SEASON. WHEN PLANTS ARE IN WHAT GROWERS CALL THE FIRST BLOOM, SCOUTS ARE IN COTTON FIELDS EACH DAY TO SEE JUST WHAT KINDS OF PESTS MIGHT BE AFFECTING THE CROP. WHERE WE SEE FLOWERS TODAY. THERE SHOULD BE COTTON BY HARVEST TIME IN THE FALL. POLLINATION BEGINS A SERIES OF EVENTS, AND IT OCCURS SHORTLY AFTER THE FLOWER HAS OPENED, WHILE IT IS FRESH AND WHITE. SOME INSECTS CAN BE HELPFUL IN THIS TRANSFER OF POLLEN FROM STAMENS TO THE STIGMA OF FLOWERS, BUT COTTON FLOWERS CAN ALSO POLLINATE THICSELVES. IT MUST HAPPEN QUICKLY, FOR FLOWERS WE SEE BLOOMING THIS MORNING WILL BEGIN TO WITHER BY THIS AFTERNOON. THEY WILL SOON BECOME ROSE COLORED AND READY TO FALL FROM THE PLANT, WHICH IF POLLINATED, WILL BEGIN DEVELOPING BOLLS, WHICH, USUALLY BY LATE SEPTEMBER, WILL BEGIN OPENING OUT INTO COTTON. PEST CONTROL MEASURES PRACTICED TODAY WILL HAVE A LOT TO DO WITH THE SUCCESS OF THE CROP. BUT SUCH MEASURES HAD THEIR BEGINNINGS FOR THIS CROP MONTHS EARLIER, WITH THE PLANTING OF COTTON SEED. IT WAS ON A SPRING MORNING THAT IMPACT TRAVELED TO JAY, FLORIDA WHERE WE CAUGHT UP WITH COTTON GROWER MICKEY DIAMOND WHOSE MECHANICAL PLANTER WILL COMPLETE A NUMBER OF TASKS AS SEEDS ARE PLACED IN THE GROUND.
>>>MICKEY DIAMOND, COTTON GROWER: There are very special problems in growing cotton, from start to finish. There is early season insect control, all the way to the end. We have an insecticide treatment that we place down in the hole with the cotton. We shoot for anywhere from ten to 12 pounds of cotton seed per acre. That runs about four to five seed per foot. The planter places it in the ground, and it is closed up and a slight packing, very little, but just a little packing. We like it to be fairly smooth.
>>>WHEN INSPECTING THE PROCESS, TO MAKE CERTAIN PLANTING HAS BEEN AT JUST THE RIGHT DEPTH. SMALL, BROWN COTTON SEEDS COULD BE DIFFICULT TO LOCATE. THAT'S ONE OF THE REASONS THE SEEDS BEING PLANTED BY DIAMOND TODAY ARE QUITE DIFFERENT IN APPEARANCE FROM ANYTHING ELSE HE WOULD EXPECT TO FIND IN THE SOIL. HE SAYS THE PURPLE COLOR NOT ONLY HELPS IN LOCATING THE SEED; THAT IT ALSO IDENTIFIES WHO PRODUCED IT AND WHAT TREATMENTS THE SEED HAS UNDERGONE; TREATMENTS THAT WILL HELP PROTECT THE PLANT AGAINST VARIOUS DISEASES. DIAMOND SAYS THE FIELD HE'S PLANTING TODAY CONSISTS OF 60 ACRES. BUT HE'S QUICK TO POINT OUT THAT THERE'S MORE. ALTOGETHER, DIAMOND HAS SOME 750 ACRES OF COTTON IN THE GROUND. BUT AT THIS STAGE OF THE SEASON. JUST HOW GOOD A YEAR IT WILL BE IS FAR FROM CERTAIN.
>>>DIAMOND: Back in the late 70s, we started planting cotton. Cotton price was good. The soybeans, corn, wheat was going down. Cotton price, even 20 years ago, still maintains about the same as it is today. It goes up and down; up and down. It goes from 40 to, right now, if you wanted to contract some cotton, you could contract it for about 74 cent. But in the early 80s it was basically the same. So a farmer has to learn how to cut ends and to maintain a good budget. We watch closely at the markets. We try to see what our breaking point is, and we want to book enough cotton that we are able to secure the breaking point, and then, you know, enough to make a profit. And then once you do that, then you know that you can; you're able to stay in and be there for the next year. But you always hope for a good crop. The markets can change suddenly and it's something you really have to take the time to watch.
---(music)--- Impact Music/Animation
---(machinery whir)---
>>>JUST AS FEWER PEOPLE ARE INVOLVED IN THE GROWING OF COTTON, TECHNOLOGICAL IMPROVEMENTS IN ITS PROCESSING RESULT IN MACHINES THAT ARE USED TO PERFORM TASKS MANY WORKERS HAD COMPLAINED OF AS BEING MUNDANE AND REPETITIVE. FURTHER REDUCING THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE HAVING ROLES IN PRODUCING COTTON PRODUCTS. THIS MAY NOT LOOK AT ALL LIKE THE DEVICE INVENTED BY ELI WHITNEY TO REMOVE SEEDS FROM COTTON, BUT IT IS, IN FACT PART OF A SERIES OF MACHINES FORMING THE MODERN COTTON GIN, CAPABLE OF CLEANING IN SECONDS AN AMOUNT OF COTTON THAT WOULD HAVE TAKEN HOURS TO CLEAN IN EARLIER GINS. FOLLOWING SEVERAL STAGES OF CLEANING. FIBERS ARE READY FOR USE BY TEXTILE MILLS, AND ARE PLACED INTO BALES. IT'S AT THE TEXTILE MILL WHERE BAILS ARE OPENED AND COTTON FIBERS ARE FIRST SENT THROUGH A SERIES OF CHUTES, PIPES AND HOSES , BEGINNING A PROCESS THAT, AFTER MUCH COMBINING, TWISTING AND WINDING, WILL END WITH THE PRODUCTION OF YARN. IT IS SPOOLS OF SUCH YARN THAT ARE PLACED ON LOOMS. LOOMS THAT PRODUCE COTTON CLOTH FOR USE IN CLOTHING AND OTHER PRODUCTS RESPECTED AROUND THE WORLD FOR LONG WEAR AND EASY CARE. WITH DEMAND FOR COTTON BEING UP WORLD WIDE, SANTA COUNTY EXTENSION DIRECTOR MIKE DONAHOE SEES A FUTURE IN WHICH STILL MORE ACREAGE WILL BE PLANTED IN COTTON, ALTERNATING WITH A PROVEN ROTATIONAL CROP.
>>>MIKE DONAHOE, SANTA ROSA COUNTY EXT. DIR: The prices have been up this year. Demand is up. Production worldwide has been down. Strong demand; prices have been good. Here in the Southeast, one important factor of course has been the success of the boll weevil eradication program. And this has reduced our insect control cost; our total production cost, and we've seen a great increase in acreage in the Southeast as a result of this one program. And cotton's a good crop for us here in Santa Rosa County and in North Florida. We grow a lot of peanuts here, and cotton is a good rotational crop with peanuts. Cotton is not affected by the same diseases and nematodes that affect peanuts, and the same way with peanuts. They're not affected by the nematodes and diseases on cotton. So, they're a good rotational crop, and it fits in well with our production system here in Santa Rosa County.
>>>IT IS DURING OUR DISCUSSION IN APRIL THAT DONAHOE TALKS WITH IMPACT ABOUT HOW THERE IS A SMALL NUMBER OF COTTON PRODUCERS IN FLORIDA; HOW WHAT MAY NOT BE IMPRESSIVE IN TERMS OF QUANTITY IS MORE THAN MADE UP FOR IN TERMS OF QUALITY.
>>>DONAHOE: Florida, probably acreage-wise, is the smallest state in the country that produces cotton. But our production here in Santa Rosa County is very high. Our quality of our cotton produced is very good, and with our abundant rainfall and good soils that we have here in this area, we're blessed. We don't have to irrigate in most cases in Northwest Florida.
>>>BUT CLOUDS THAT PROVIDE IDEAL AMOUNTS OF RAINFALL FOR COTTON WOULD BE LOOKED AT WITH AT LEAST SOME APPREHENSION. ALTHOUGH THEY APPEAR TO BE LARGE PUFFS OF COTTON THICSELVES, COULD THEY BE HARBINGERS OF BAD NEWS ABOUT TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING? ALTHOUGH COTTON IS GROWN INLAND, NORTH OF BEACH AREAS, PREDICTIONS FOR AN EXCEPTIONALLY ACTIVE HURRICANE SEASON WORRY GROWERS, FOR THE MERE FORTY OR SO MILES SEPARATING THEM FROM A SHORELINE THAT COULD BE POUNDED BY THE FULL FURY OF SUCH STORMS MEANS THAT THEY, TOO COULD EXPERIENCE DESTRUCTIVE WINDS AND DAMAGING AMOUNTS OF RAINFALL. AND BECAUSE COTTON IS A DELICATE CROP, GROWERS' HOPES FOR A GOOD YEAR COULD BE LITERALLY BLOWN AWAY. HURRICANE ERIN COULD HAVE DONE THAT, SAY GROWERS, BECAUSE ITS WINDS EXTENDED OUTWARD FROM PENSACOLA WHERE EVEN THE LARGEST OF TREES WERE BROUGHT DOWN BY HIGH WINDS. THEN, WITHIN WEEKS. THERE WAS HURRICANE OPAL. BUT, ALTHOUGH IT CAUSED BILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN DAMAGE, OPAL HAD LOST MUCH OF ITS PUNCH BEFORE MAKING LANDFALL, SO WINDS THAT DID REACH INLAND WERE NOT AS DESTRUCTIVE AS ORIGINALLY FEARED. WHILE COTTON WAS LOST IN BOTH STORMS, MANY GROWERS FEEL FORTUNATE THAT THINGS WEREN'T WORSE. STILL. IN THE RURAL ALLENTOWN COMMUNITY OF WEST FLORIDA, COTTON FARMER PAUL FLINN SAYS HE'S EXPERIENCING HIS WORST SEASON EVER.
>>>PAUL FLINN - COTTON FARMER: Well, it's been a rough one. It's been the roughest I ever saw. I've been farming I guess since '62 and brought in 35 crops and I ain't never seen anything like what we've been through. As far as the hurricanes, I'd hate to say which one done the most damage. It's just hard to tell because we got a lot of damage out of both of them...The last one caught the cotton, you know, just as it was opening up. A lot of it was open. The earlier cotton, like this field right here; it was like maybe 30, 40-percent open, or maybe a little more. And what wasn't opened; opening, was crackin' and fixin' to open, and the water got in there, and the bolls have rotted. The burrs rotted; put a lot of cotton on the ground. The wind and the rain together put a good bit on the ground. It would probably be from 35 to 50-percent loss from the two hurricanes.
>>>THERE'S EVEN SOME CONCERN THAT BOLL WEEVILS MAY HAVE CAUGHT A RIDE ON HURRICANE WINDS INTO SOME FLORIDA COTTON FIELDS. EXPERTS SAY THOUGH, THAT, SO FAR. MONITORING TRAPS REMAIN EMPTY.
---(mechanical whir of cotton harvester)---
>>>BUT THERE WAS ANOTHER PROBLEM, TOO. ALTHOUGH THEY'RE LONG GONE NOW, ARMY WORMS TOOK THEIR TOLL WHEN COTTON WAS MOST VULNERABLE. COTTON FARMER MICKEY DIAMOND HAD HOPED OF PRODUCING 900 POUNDS OF COTTON PER ACRE.
>>>MICKEY DIAMOND, JAY, FLORIDA COTTON FARMER: If we hadn't had the army worms and the hurricanes, we would have had some shot maybe at a 900-pound; one thousand pound cotton. And the way it is now, it's 500 pounds. When the hurricane come through and it broke the tap roots off and it laid it over. When it laid it over, it rotted what was on this side of the plant, and the worms just took a toll on it. Very badly on this side cause you couldn't get to it. And then what was there, we couldn't kill. And of course, this plant has been picked, but you can see how out of shape it is.
>>>DIAMOND DESCRIBES WEATHER WE SEE TODAY AS IDEAL FOR HARVESTING. THERE HASN'T BEEN ANY RAIN, SO THE COTTON IS DRY, AND MECHANICAL HARVESTERS ARE BEING PUT TO THEIR ONCE-A-YEAR TASK. AS HARVESTERS BECOME FILLED WITH COTTON, THEY MAKE A "PIT STOP" OF SORTS, TRANSFERRING FIBERS JUST PICKED TO ANOTHER PIECE OF MACHINERY. BY HYDRAULIC COMPACTING, THE PHYSICAL DIMENSIONS OF THE COTTON WILL BE REDUCED AS WHAT'S CALLED A MODULE IS BUILT. COMPLETED MODULES. WHICH ARE LARGE RECTANGLES OF COMPRESSED COTTON, ARE THEN TRUCKED TO COTTON GINS.
>>>THEY'RE ALSO HARVESTING COTTON AT THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA'S WEST FLORIDA RESEARCH AND EDUCATION CENTER IN JAY, FLORIDA. CENTER DIRECTOR TONY PEACOCK SAYS COTTON GROWN AND HARVESTED FOR RESEARCH PURPOSES SCIENTIFICALLY IDENTIFIES CHARACTERISTIC DESIRABLE AND UNDESIRABLE TRAITS.
>>>DR. TONY PEACOCK, DIRECTOR, WEST FLORIDA RESEARCH AND EDUCATION CENTER: One of the purposes in growing as many of the varieties as we do--and this year we probably are testing somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 or 120 different varieties--the primary purpose, of course, is to find the ones which are most adaptable to the cotton growing area of Florida. The old cotton breeders would go in the cotton field and they would pull the cotton, and then put it between their thumbs like this, and break it. And this cotton; you need to try this. You can't break it. It's strong; it's very strong; It has excellent fiber strength and it has excellent fiber length. The varieties change from year to year. I don't mean a particular variety changes. I mean that we have new varieties coming on each year. Because the cotton breeders have to stay ahead of insect pests. They have to try to keep up with their competition, to try to develop cottons that will reach a new yield plateau, and for that reason--and also for marketing strategies-- that we have new cotton varieties developed each year. And we have a policy that we try not to; Well, we don't recommend a cotton variety for farmer planting until it has been grown on the research center or in demonstration plots in the cotton growing areas and we have at least three years' data on its performance.
>>>FROM SUCH RECOMMENDATIONS COME NEW AND IMPROVED PRODUCTS. COPELAND GRISWOLD SAYS THERE WAS A TIME WHEN COTTON CLOTHING LACKED ITS PRESENT QUALITIES.
>>>GRISWOLD: When they first started wearing cotton, you know, it would wrinkle, and they didn't manage it. I mean, you know what I'm talking about; You know. And every young lady I seen, I'd say "Thanks for wearing cotton." And some of them would blush, and some of them would flush. Some of them would just laugh, you know. I'd say "Thanks for wearing cotton!" But now it's getting to where you can't; I mean it's so neat and all. There's no wrinkle.
>>>PEACOCK: The fibers are strong, which means that in the developmental process of producing wash and wear cottons, that the chemical process which produces the wash and wear decreases the strength of the cotton somewhat, but the fabric that's made from today's modern cotton still has excellent strength because we have the excellent strength in the cotton fiber to begin with.
>>>BUT IS A COTTON T-SHIRT BOUGHT TODAY BETTER THAN ONE PURCHASED A QUARTER CENTURY AGO? THERE ARE, AFTER ALL, THOSE WHO FEEL THAT, REGARDLESS OF THE PRODUCT, THAT MANUFACTURERS DON'T MAKE THINGS LIKE THEY USED TO. IN A WAY, PEACOCK AGREES, SAYING THAT, WITH COTTON, THEY'RE MADE BETTER.
>>>PEACOCK: A cotton t-shirt today would be superior to one that was made 25 years ago. Yes, in that it could be washed many more times without becoming threadbare. Do you know what threadbare is?
---(It's when you can see...)---
>>>PEACOCK: That's right. You can see daylight through it!
>>>AT THE NORTH FLORIDA RESEARCH AND EDUCATION CENTER IN MARIANNA, FLORIDA EXTENSION ECONOMIST TIMOTHY HEWITT SAYS THAT IN ITS OWN WAY, COTTON HAS A LARGER IMPACT ON OUR LIVES THAN ANY OTHER CROP; THAT ALMOST EVERYONE HAS CLOTHING THEY'RE EITHER WEARING OR HAVE HANGING IN THEIR CLOSETS THAT IS MADE FROM COTTON.
>>>TIMOTHY HEWITT, EXTENSION ECONOMIST: As recently as 1990, we were growing about 36,000 acres in the State of Florida. And this year, 1995, we're projected to harvest 109,000 acres, which is a tremendous increase. And also, when we look at last year, we grossed 68,000. So it's a very, very large increase. We've seen a lot of interest in it. And when you look at what our yield's going to be this year and project a price at somewhere in the neighborhood of 70 to 75 cents per pound--an average price this year, we're looking at a value this year, just from direct sales, of over $56 million. Now, when you look at all the effects we get with all the employment statistics; some of the satellite industries; employment in the gins, then we see a crop that's values at about $250 million, so about one-quarter of a billion dollars, so a very, very important crop in north Florida, and a very, very important crop throughout Florida. And when you compare it to the other row crops; if you consider sugar cane as a row crop, it's number one in sales, but now, with the increase in acreage we see this year for row crops, cotton's going to be about number two in the State of Florida; will be number two in the State of Florida for 1995. So a very, very important crop in Florida, and it seems to be increasing in interest, and I think that's going to hold true for the next two or three years because with some of the problems we are having in the U.S. this year; we've seen a very strong price this year. And for sure, that's going to hold throughout next year, and probably the year after.
>>>ONE CHARACTERISTIC LONG ASSOCIATED WITH COTTON IS ITS WHITE COLOR. BUT THAT'S NOT THE WAY IT HAS TO BE. RESEARCHERS SAY COTTON CAN BE GROWN IN SUCH COLORS AS BROWN AND GREEN, ELIMINATING THE NEED TO DYE FABRICS.
>>>FOR MORE INFORMATION ON SUBJECTS SEEN TODAY ON IMPACT, AND A FREE SUBSCRIPTION TO IMPACT MAGAZINE, WRITE TO IMPACT AT THE ADDRESS YOU SEE HERE. OR CALL 352-392-0437. TRANSCRIPTS ARE ALSO AVAILABLE FOR SIX DOLLARS. VIDEO COPIES ARE TWELVE DOLLARS. AND REMEMBER TO VISIT OUR WEB PAGE FOR MORE ON UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA RESEARCH AND EDUCATION.
>>>IMPACT, A WEEKLY LOOK AT ISSUES AND ANSWERS THAT IMPACT OUR LIVES AND THE WORLD AROUND US. IT'S PRODUCED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA'S INSTITUTE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES.