Gerald Myers, Dickson, John I.
LSU AgCenter
Cotton is one of the oldest textile fibers in the world, reaching back until the fifth or fourth millennium B.C., with some of the earliest cultivation occurring in Mexico, India, Egypt and China. One of the earliest reports of its cultivation in what is now the United States dates to 1556 in Florida, though it was found growing in the wild by Christopher Columbus in 1492 and along the banks of the Mississippi and its tributaries by subsequent explorers. The first reported cultivation in Louisiana dates to 1729, but reports tracing to the early 17th century exist. Louisiana State University Agricultural Experiment Station bulletins mentioning cotton fertility research appeared in 1886, and the first testing of 22 different cotton varieties appeared in 1887. Then, cotton variety trial yields ranged from 420 to 586 pounds of lint per acre. More than a century later, the state’s average yield has doubled.