Gossypium barbadense, also known as extra-long staple cotton, is a species of cotton plant that has been cultivated to have ELS fibres – fibres longer than – which are associated with high qualitycotton cloth. The species is a tropical, frost-sensitive perennial that produces yellow flowers and has black seeds. It grows as a small, bushy tree and yields cotton with unusually long, silky fibers. To grow, it requires full sun and high humidity and rainfall. This plant contains the chemical gossypol, which reduces its susceptibility to insect and fungal damage. ELS cotton is commonly sold as Pima or Egyptian cotton. However, only a small amount of Egyptian cotton produced each year is actually ELS cotton. The Pima name label has been adopted by ELS producers in places such as Australia, Peru, and Israel.
History
The name Pima was applied in honor of the Pima Indians, who helped raise the cotton on USDA experimental farms in Arizona in the early 1900s. The first clear sign of domestication of this cotton species comes from the Early Valdivia phase site of Real Alto on the coast of Ecuador and from Ancon, on the Peruvian coast, where cotton bolls dating to 4200 BCE were found. According to other accounts, Real Alto cotton is dated to 3500–3000 BCE, and the oldest Cueva de Guitarrero in Anchash, Peru cotton is dated 8000 BCE. By 1000 BCE, Peruvian cotton bolls were indistinguishable from modern cultivars of G. barbadense. Native Americans grew cotton widely throughout South America and in the West Indies, where Christopher Columbus encountered it. English colonists established cotton in the West Indies as a commercial plantation crop tended by enslaved workers imported from West Africa. By the 1650s, Barbados had become the first British West Indies colony to export cotton to England and Europe.
Sea Island cotton
What was called Sea Island cotton was cultivated on the Sea Islands, along the coasts of South Carolina and Georgia, especially by the late 18th century. Sea Island cotton commanded the highest price of all the cottons because of its long staple and silky texture; it was used for the finest cotton counts and often mixed with silk. Although planters tried to grow it on the uplands of Georgia, the quality was inferior, and it was too expensive to process. The invention of the cotton gin by the end of the 18th century utterly changed the production of cotton as a commodity crop. It made processing of short-staple cotton profitable. This cotton, known as upland cotton, could be grown successfully in the interior uplands. Short-staple cotton became the prime commodity crop of the developing Deep South, and King Cotton was the basis of southern wealth in the antebellum years. This cotton in the early 21st century represents about 95% of U.S. production. Among the earliest planters of Sea Island cotton in North America was an Englishman, Francis Levett. Other cotton planters came from Barbados. At the outbreak of the American Revolution, Levett left his Georgia plantation and went to the Bahamas. He attempted to introduce cotton production, but failed. Sugar cane had been a more important commodity crop.
American Pima accounts for less than 5% of U.S. cotton production. It is grown chiefly in California, with small acreages in West Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. For purposes of federal support, the 2002 farm bill defined ELS cotton. ELS cotton is eligible for marketing assistance loans and loan deficiency payments. The national loan rate for ELS cotton under the 2002 farm bill was $0.7977 per pound. ELS cotton, in contrast to upland cotton, does not qualify for direct payments or counter-cyclical payments.
