Cotton - do you know.?

We all know cotton known in textile world as King Cotton.There are many fibers made by man but nothing can beat this god made fiber cotton.Those Were the days when cotton ruled the world.It was a cash crop in India and India was and is the 2nd largest producer of cotton in the world.USA is the 3rd country though.The first they say is China and I do not know anything about China,if I can say so.The picture of a cotton Boll as seen is plucked from the plant and is carried to the market yard in huge loosely woven jute bags and sold as it is or taken to a ginning mill.It's here the cotton bolls are opened and the lint is separated from the seeds.This process is called as ginning.The machines of present day have undergone sea change from the days when cotton ruled the textile industry,the present machines are more efficient in cleaning the cotton while separating from the seeds and also the out put is very high.Once the lint is separated from the seeds it goes to the Baling Machine.Here it is pressed tight in to standard weights with due allowances and actual weight is once again checked by the cotton buying textile mills,the final place when it is opened to process in the textile mills.Earlier to the invention of man made fibers it was pure cotton that was used by textile mills anywhere in the world.The machines used in the textile mills of today for cotton yarn spinning are all hi-tech machines in hygienic environment so as to avoid any flouting fiber that should enter the operatives lungs while breathing during their work.The air inside the processing zone known as Blow Room department is continuously circulated after filtering by machines similar to any room air circulaters called air circulaters in air conditioners which draws the room air through filters and sends it out and circulates fresh air from out side.The filters are continuously cleaned and the floating fibers drawn from the department is also packed in to manageable bundles.They are sold as cotton dust.The history of cotton is fully described in Wikipedia the link to the site is given under:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton#History

The Indian Textile Industry is one of the most important and integrated industries in the Indian economy providing employment to about 35 mn people directly and 50 mn people indirectly. The market size in FY08 is estimated at USD 52 bn and accounts for 26% of the manufacturing sector, 20% of the industrial production and 18% of total industrial employment. The industry also contributes 15% to gross export earnings and 4% to national GDP. The textile industry can be segmented into natural fibres and man-made fibres (MMF) based on use of basic raw material, cotton or crude derivate respectively.