White Gold Part 1

 

I have loved and worn cotton all my life but never paid much attention to how it gets to the finished product. More recently one thing led to another and I was introduced to the fascinating world of cotton. About 2 weeks back I was seeing a patient in my clinic for pain in his arm. Trying to understand what may have caused the pain I asked him what work he does. He told me he works in a factory that makes cotton bales. That stirred my curiosity. I did the needful for his arm pain but before he left I asked if I could visit his workplace some day. He gave me his number and said I could come in November when all activity takes place. So what do they do now, I asked. He told me they have to service all their machinery during this time.

My intrigue was heightened. I researched the cotton cycle. I found out that USA is the largest exporter of cotton in the world. India produces a lot of cotton too and exports parts of it but it still imports some varieties from the USA and other countries. Cotton growing needs a period of 160 frost free days and long sunny period hence it is best achieved between latitudes 45 N and 30 S. In the USA 14 states are cotton growers. California is one of the larger of these.

The two varieties of cotton grown in the USA are upland and American Pima. The Pima has longer fiber length and is grown in the cotton belt that extends in 4 states namely California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

The preparation for the next crop starts right after each harvest in November. The soil is tilled at the time to rotate nutrients and ridges and furrows are redone. In February it is watered. In March they do what is called mulching and then roller treatment. Late March or early April comes adding fertilizer with mineral nutrients. Soon after that the seeds will be planted into the soil. A week later the first seedlings make an appearance and slowly more leaves and the buds are seen. The buds pass through maturation stages until they burst open revealing the seeds and cotton fibers arising out of the seeds. These are called the cotton bolls( it is not balls). Each boll has 32 seeds and each seed has thousands of fibers.

The crop needs to be carefully protected from soil fungus and insects/ pests. Adding pesticides is carefully monitored as per need and adds significantly to the cost. A lot of research has gone into creating varieties from the ancient wild cotton not only to make them disease resistant but also more effective for processing into yarn. 

Innovations in the machinery to plant, harvest and process the cotton crop also has been extensive contributing to a much higher productivity since the days of hand sowing and hand picking. 

There are professionals trained to oversee the health of the crop and also to determine the quality of the final produce using scientific instruments. Each batch from the harvest is subjected to quality check and that decides it’s sale price. Cotton is priced at cents per pound.

When the crop is harvested it is taken out with the entire bolls( which is fibers plus seeds, called seed cotton) as well as some leaves, sticks etc that get picked up alongside. This then goes through process of removing the trash. The bolls are them vacuum cleaned to remove traces of moisture before going through ginning. Ginning is a process where the seeds are separated from the fibers. A saw gin is used for the shorter fiber varieties and roller gin for the longer fibers ( Pima). It made me proud to learn that the roller gin was invented in India centuries ago. All the newer versions are simply refinements off the original model. The gins help discard the seeds that are much larger to pass through them allowing only the cotton fibers( known as lint) to pass through. 

The lint is then compressed into bales. The bale size is standardized by the cotton industry. Each bale weighs 500 pounds( lbs). Each bale is then banded with eight steel straps, wrapped for protection and then loaded into trucks to be sent to storage yards, textile mills or shipped to foreign countries. This ginning and packing is the activity that takes place in November at the facility where my patient works. Will update you at that time.

Today I set out to see the activity that’s going on in the fields right now. Met a young man named Saul who was in a tractor in one open field. When he saw me approach he was kind enough to stop the tractor and get out to talk to me. His father has been a cotton farmer for over 40 years and Saul who is 35 said this is what he has watched all his life. When I told him I was interested in following the entire cycle of a cotton crop he happily shared his phone number to keep me updated about the next stages in planting. Today, he explained, he was doing what is called Mulching. On the other side another guy was using the roller on the already mulched field. In the distance another farmer was putting fertilizer into the soil. Next week they will be sowing the seeds. Saul is going to let me know the exact day so I can go see. 

By the way, the seeds that are separated from the lint are also of use. These are loaded into trucks and sent to cotton seed mills that process oil out of them. This oil is used in making potato chips. It is not a wonder that Kern county is a major grower of potatoes as well as Frito Lay the company that makes potato chips has a big production plant in the same area as the cotton farms. All these industries are interdependent. A part of the cotton seeds are also used to feed livestock( cows in dairies). The dairies are also located in that area !! 

Saree is a much loved crisp cotton in white I had bought over 15 years back in Lucknow. The beautiful self color chikan embroidery on it is beautiful beyond words but unfortunately difficult to capture in photos. Cotton is historically referred to as White Gold because of the high revenues it generates and the employment opportunities it creates. I chose this white cotton saree earlier this morning because I knew I was going out looking for a cotton field. But later changed into something darker because wearing white to a dirt filled area wasn’t going to be a good idea !

I will keep updating this series on white gold as I keep visiting the fields and ginning facility through the year.