Cotton, Colleton County, S.C.

A bale of cotton (500 pounds) can make about 1,200 T-shirts, according to cotton.org.
A bale of cotton (500 pounds) can make about 1,200 T-shirts, according to cotton.org.

Old King Cotton is bustin’ out all over the South, including in this field near rural Ruffin, S.C., in Colleton County.

According to Cotton USA, about a third of the nation’s cotton is grown in fields from Alabama through Virginia.  According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, South Carolina ranked 10th nationally in production of cotton by growing 587,589 bales of the crop.  As a comparison, Georgia, ranked second to Texas, grew 2.7 million in 2012.

Photo taken Oct. 1, 2014, by Andy Brack.  All rights reserved.