Cotton Comes from Gin?

---

(Camp Tejas)

We took a tour through a 100 year old working cotton gin! I’ve taught about Eli Whitney (1793) and the cotton gin, but really didn’t have the understanding (or interest!) in how it worked. This tour was fascinating! It’s located in a small (very small) town, and once a year they have~~are you ready?~~a Cotton Gin Festival! And they actually gin cotton bolls. Cotton was once the main crop grown in this area, along with tobacco, but now it’s only grown one place, and that’s on the garden-size spot near the cotton gin, and it’s grown for the sole purpose of the Cotton Gin Festival, when they fire up the 1925 diesel engine to demonstrate the whole process. We sat in on a demonstration in the museum and learned how the impact of cotton on history, and followed the cotton seed from planting to baling. The gin at Burton was ahead of its time by having a vacuum system that took the cotton from the wagon to the gin on the second floor of the building.

One thing I found very interesting was that the cotton blossom lasts just 24 hours; it’s pale yellow when it first opens, but in the first 12 hours it will turn a soft pink. Within 12 hours it will turn to bright pink, and then continues to get a deeper shade of pink as it shrivels and drops off, leaving the young cotton boll underneath. 24 hours is all!
It was one of the most interesting tours we’ve had, I think….but I also think I say that fairly often! Did you know that cotton and okra are cousins? This is proof, I think, that you shouldn’t eat either one!

Spring has sprung in Texas….well it hasn’t really sprung, it’s more like it crept in around winter’s tantrums, but it is here for sure. There are wildflowers on the hills, the yards (are they wildflowers if they’re in yards???), along the highways, and the country roads. The cedar trees and oaks are pollinating; cedar trees leave a yellow pollen dust, and it’s on my window sills, countertops, floors, socks, screens, golf cart, always on our black pickup…it’s awful. I ate an apple yesterday, which tasted kind of bitter, and after I finished it I got to thinking it was probably covered with pollen from sitting on the cupboard! When it rains the puddles and water gathered in the chairs have a yellow ring around them (oh you know I tried to get a picture of that!) It’s everywhere.
cedar pollen + my sinuses = disaster
It doesn’t do anything for my cheery disposition, either!!

---

Photos

By nature, cotton is brown!
It has been altered until it became white...because it's easier to dye. The light brown reminded me of a chick!

This is a cotton gin--
the boll goes in the left side, the comb is the wheel on the left, (the seeds drop into the compartment on the lower left) the second wheel cleans the cotton from the comb, and then the lint (cotton) is collected in the final bin.

I didn't say the cotton gin
was a fancy place, I said it still works!

1925 "Lady B"
Bessemer Type IV diesel engine runs the gin. And it still works!

The combs...
which are really saw blades. The seeds are so hard that they aren't even marked by the blades.

I found this in the gin office!
What a funny name, huh?

FYI
(once a teacher, always a teacher!)

Interesting that even though we're
third in production, we export more than any other country! And who do we export to? China. Their need is so great that they can't grow enough to fill it. Although it may be made in China, it could be grown here.

A bale of cotton is about 500 pounds.
They don't have to be uniform weight, they have to be the exact size, so they can be stacked. And this is what one bale can produce...

Some of the products made with
cotton seed oil. Check the ingredients, and you'll be surprised how often you run across it!

Look at the grape vines growing
through this tree!

Live Oak
That's the type of tree, not the condition of its health!

The fire area is surrounded
by these giant oaks and grapevines.

Comments

[Bev]

Another learning moment
Keep up your touring and we all will have more knowledge. I remember when we seen the cotton fields in AZ many years ago. Alvin took the girls out into the field and they brought the pods home for show and tell. Easter Blessings to you. Love and Hugs Bev

[Danielson]

Hi, Bev!
That sounds like a show and tell event! The first time we saw cotton fields was when we went to TX for Bryce's birth.