What these many laborers accomplish in
the fields of industry, therefore, has a most important bearing upon the
life and work of men, leaders and followers alike, in other fields of
action. With this thought in mind, let us take a brief glance at a few of
our great industries.
First, go with me in thought to the South, where the cotton, from which we
make much of our clothing, is raised. Owing to the favorable climate of
the Southern States, it being warm and moist, the United States produces
more cotton and cotton of a better quality than any other country in the
world.
No crop, it is said, is so beautiful as growing cotton. The plants are
low, with dark-green leaves, the flowers, which are yellow at first,
changing by degrees to white, and then to deep pink. The cotton-fields
look like great flower-gardens.
As the blossoms die they are replaced by the young bolls, or pods, which
contain the seeds. From the seeds grow long vegetable hairs, which form
white locks in the pods. These fibres are the cotton. When the pods become
ripe and open, the cotton bursts out and covers them with a puff of soft,
white down.
[Illustration: Cotton-Field in Blossom.
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