Thursday, February 17, 2011

Cotton

By SKEETER,

We left our Georgia Garden during the week of Thanksgiving. The Saint had a business trip to attend in Florida. He took a few days of vacation so I tagged along for a bit of fun in the sun. We must travel back highways for some time until we meet up with the Interstate headed this direction. I enjoy traveling the back roads as you never know what one might see along the way. Just look at what our eyes spotted within an hour of our journey. Fields of Cotton!
Of course I had the Saint pull the car to the side of the road for a photo op. He hates when I have him do this but on back roads there is not much traffic so I do not hesitate asking him for such small joys in life.

*Thanks sweet Saint for pulling over when I know you did not want to...

Not only did we spot fields of cotton but also bales of the white fluff.
Not pure white as there is some debris within. Where is Eli Whitney and his Cotton Gin ?
This field was stripped of the clothes making materials. The South Plains of the United States is the largest contiguous cotton growing region in the world.
A few late blooming balls remained. I did not bother the cotton as I feared a shotgun in my face. I just snapped pictures then off we went on down the road.
In this field the tarps on the cotton were blue in color. The first field had green tarps. I wonder if that has a meaning, like belonging to a different farmer or different quality of cotton. Hum, one can only wonder when they do not know too much about cotton crops....
Soon after we had gotten back onto the road, we came upon a truck filled with one of the huge bales.
I can only wonder what will be made from this COTTON, In the Garden...
Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

17 comments:

  1. Those were some great photos. I just read on line where the price of cotton garments is going to go up, as is the price of other things.

    FlowerLady

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  2. Well that is neat to see all that cotton. My it is a lot. I think I've seen some cotton growing when I lived in Alabama and felt it with the seeds in it. It is so cool that everything we wear is made from this! I have a friend here in town who grows cotton in her ornamental garden. The flowers are so pretty! Now I'm wondering if she ever got any cotton from the plants. The Saint is a sweetheart for sure!

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  3. Cotton is such a great crop! It really is amazing how much of a benefit we can receive from these plants. I've thought about growing a few plants in the backyard just for fun!

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  4. What fun to see the cotton fields and then the bales in the truck! Oh, but I do have concern for the pesticides they use. I want to think this is an organic cotton production. I love cotton but know it is of an industry that uses too many poisons. Seeing your great photos also makes me think of slavery and how hard it is to hand pick cotton. Gee! I am sure you did not expect your lovely post to conjure up these thoughts! It is good to take the back roads and make discoveries.

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  5. Good morning everyone! It is morning and I have some windows open to the house airing it out with fresh air! Going to be in the 70's today and I cannot wait....

    Darla, Ah, the feel of cotton….

    Flowerlady, I am guessing gas and the crazy weather are to blame for the price of products rising…

    Tina, Cotton in an ornamental garden in Tennessee! How neat is that..

    Dave, go for it! The experiment would be fun…

    Carol, I have no idea of the pesticides used on this cotton. And all comments are welcome here at “In the Garden”. Pesticides to Slavery are all talked about on the site I linked. Click on the link and check it out…

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  6. There are always eventful happenings going through the back roads... I was hit once by a large buffalo scrambling down a hill and straight to the side of the car... No way stopping for both of us... :)

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  7. Bangchik, Yikes! The Saint was hit by a running deer a few years ago but I have never heard of anyone hitting a buffalo until now. Must have done a lot of damage...

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  8. As with Carol I first thought of the slavery and conditions even white folks have had to live under as I have always heard that picking cotton is a terrible way to make a living but I suspose i is all done by machine now. On the flip side it also is known for being such a pretty plant and I think, interesting plant. For all you people in the south that like to garden it ould be fun to try and grow some of it, just for fun as Dave said. I always like to try different things. That sure sounds like a fun day of traveling.

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  9. Hello all, getting a late start here but have been cleaning out things all day.
    I've seen cotton growing in Ga. as I passed through going to the mtns in yrs past. It is a pretty plant. I would like to try growing it here just to teach the kids about it.
    Those days were hard on people. Picking cotton sure can mess your hands up. They get so raw they bleed sometimes. Picking by the lb. was the way it was.

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  10. Oh, isn't it fun to come across something like this? We never see cotton up here, but sometimes big fields of sunflowers. Once when I was in NC, I saw tobacco growing for the first time. Had no clue what it was!

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  11. Interesting post, we saw cotton in Alabama when visting hubby while he was at a school. The kids loved it but I was too scared to snatch a piece, lol. We just looked:)
    I am starting to get excited I have so many little green sprouts popping up -just hope old man winter doesn't come up with a doozie of a storm and ruin my pretties. Hi Jean, Lola, Nina, Tina, Skeeter and Dawn -always wishing my favorite gals a great day!! Ciao!

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  12. JGH, Again I am sorry to hear about poor Stella, sigh...

    Jean, Lola and Anonymous, Hey girls happy to see you here today! It is going to be a wonderful warm weekend and we have plans to be out in it. Working in the yard but still enjoying that warmth on our chilled body's.

    Have a great outside weekend!

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  13. So cool! is always great seeing the fields next to the road. Back at my country I always enjoyed seeing the grapes and oranges.

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  14. Your Saint truly is a saint. My Larry doesn't like it when I take photos from the vehicle, so I don't push it by asking him to stop. I just snap and hope for the best. We don't take many back roads, though, so it would be harder to stop. Even when we do, he is too intent on getting where we are going.

    I enjoyed seeing your photos and reading about them. Thanks for taking us along on part of your trip.

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  15. He is a saint for pulling over Skeeter! Driving straight through vs. stopping to take in a few neat sights along the way seems to be one of the perennial male/female conflicts. Bless him for indulging you in spite of his own preference to keep going.

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  16. hi skeeter, seeing the cotton makes me think of slavery like carol but also wonderful folk songs. cotton is grown here but is controversial because it needs lots of water. anyway i must say i do prefer to wear cotton compared to synthetics. thanks for a fascinating post. cheers, cm

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