22 
Modern Business Geography 
ton shade, wash with a cotton wash cloth, dry your face and hands 
with a cotton towel, eat your supper from a cotton tablecloth while 
using a cotton napkin, rest in a chair upholstered in cotton, study by 
a light fed with kerosene through a cotton wick, and in the end toss 
back a cotton bedspread, crawl in between cotton sheets, nestle under 
the warmth of a cotton quilt, and go to sleep on a cotton pillow. The 
chief reasons for the wide use of cotton articles in the home are their 
cheapness and durability, the ease with which they can be cleaned 
and kept fresh, and the adaptability of the cotton fiber to a great 
variety of uses. 
The consumption of cotton in occupations. Nearly every occupa- 
tion consumes cotton in one way or another. It is used in the fisher- 
man’s net and sail, the soldier’s tent, the hunter’s smokeless powder, 
the miller’s flour bags, and the dairyman’s strainer. Manufacturers 
use cotton in a great many things, such as shoes, automobile tires, 
books, and oilcloth. Often the manufacturer mixes some cotton 
with other fibers in making woolen, linen, and silk goods. 
Consumption of cotton in the tropics. Although the greater part 
of the cotton produced is used by people who live in the temperate 
zone, those who live in warm regions also use it extensively. In fact, 
the people of the tropics use cotton goods almost to the exclusion of 
wool, linen, and silk. This is not only because cotton is cheaper, 
but because it is warm enough at all seasons. In this respect tropical 
people contrast strongly with those, like ourselves, who live in the 
temperate zone; we use a variety of clothing materials, partly 
because we can afford to do so and partly because of the variation of 
the seasons. 
With many tropical people the question of clothing is not of great 
importance, because they wear so little. Many of them wear cloths 
instead of clothes. These they wrap gracefully about the body. 
Among some peoples, the clothing is merely an apron or loin cloth, 
which usually lasts a long time. Hence the tropical lands would 
make only a small market for cotton goods were it not for their 
vast populations. In India alone there are more than 315,000,000 
people — as many as in all Europe outside of Russia. Each of these 
millions of persons needs at least one garment. Many of them wear 
not only the body cloth, but a cotton turban of eight or ten square 
yards, and a cotton shawl about the same size, often embroidered 
with gold. Some, of course, use as much cotton as we do. 
The annual import of cotton goods into India alone is valued at 
more than $200,000,000, and this is in addition to the large amount