April planting of five Upland Cotton seeds. September harvest of fourty-five bolls. A boll is made up of four to five sections holding four to eight seeds. Attached to each seed surface are many many fibers each of which is an outgrowth of a single cell that develops in the surface layer of the seed. In the beginning the fiber cell elongates to its full length as a thin–walled tube. As it matures, the fiber wall is thickened by deposits of cellulose inside the tube, leaving a hollow area in the center. When the growth period ends the living material dies, and the fiber collapses and twists about its own axis. Each boll may hold up to 500,000 fibers. Some prepare all those fibers before spinning by removing the seeds one by one and combing the fibers to roll them into little pencil sized punnis. With my handspindle I spun directly from the soft seeded mass. The fibers tearing from the seed bit by bit. What will one boll make? One spool of course. The cotton still blooms and a second harvest has nearly arrived.
