Talk:Cotton

How Cotton is Processed

Cotton is a fiber often used in more than 70% of everyone's clothing. Cotton is produced in either of two processes: the spinning process or the weaving process. The spinning process is how the cotton is made into a type of thread. The weaving process is where the raw cotton is woven into pieces of fabric. The spinning process is a bit more complex as it happens before the cotton can be made into cloth. The first step in the spinning process is mixing and blowing. This is where the fiber is unraveled, compressed, and cleaned by removing any dirt or other substances. The fiber is then pulled and elongated by using a drawing machine to straighten and remove uneven thickness from the fibers. The fiber is then further elongated using a roving machine which then makes the fiber into a form of thread where it is put into a spinning machine to obtain a desired thickness to then be put through the weaving process. Erikamgn1850 (talk) 00:24, 23 March 2024 (UTC)

There is in fact a fine thread of truth here, interwoven with huge huge swathes of undermistanding. - Roxy the dog 21:47, 2 April 2025 (UTC)

Proposed summary for technical prose

I've been using Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro Experimental large language model to create summaries for the most popular articles with {{Technical}} templates. This article, Cotton, has such a template in the "Genome" section. Here is the paragraph summary at grade 5 reading level which Gemini 2.5 Pro suggested for that section:

Scientists started working together in 2007 to map out all the instructions, called a genome, that tell a cotton plant how to grow. The cotton we use often has complex instructions made from two older types mixed together. To understand the complex cotton, the scientists first studied simpler, wild cotton plants that only had one type of instruction set. Knowing these simpler instructions helps them figure out the instructions in the more complex cotton used on farms. Companies also helped map one of the simpler instruction sets and shared their findings. By 2014, scientists had successfully mapped the instructions for at least one kind of cotton.

While I have read and may have made some modifications to that summary, I am not going to add it to the section because I want other editors to review, revise if appropriate, and add it instead. This is an experiment with a few dozen articles initially to see how these suggestions are received, and after a week or two, I will decide how to proceed. Thank you for your consideration. Cramulator (talk) 12:36, 2 April 2025 (UTC)

Don't do it. It'll only lead to tears and upset. - Roxy the dog 17:15, 2 April 2025 (UTC)

I am retracting this and the other LLM-generated suggestions due to clear negative consensus at the Village Pump. I will be posting a thorough postmortem report in mid-April to the source code release page. Thanks to all who commented on the suggestions both negatively and positively, and especially to those editors who have manually addressed the overly technical cleanup issue on six, so far, of the 68 articles where suggestions were posted. Cramulator (talk) 22:43, 4 April 2025 (UTC)

Wikiproject Abortion

Does anybody know why this article is included in Wikiproject Abortion? - Roxy the dog 17:14, 2 April 2025 (UTC)

Apparently because it was in Category:Abortifacients at the time the WikiProject was added (see edit summary). The category is gone, but this article still has a sourced claim that cotton root bark was used an an abortifacient. That source doesn't appear to be a reliable source for medical claims about the efficacy of cotton root bark as an abortifacient.

I'm not involved with WikiProject Abortion and don't know if they consider purported abortifacients in scope at all, but I assume they would not consider them to be high importance, so I changed the rating to low after this popped up on my watchlist. Plantdrew (talk) 20:36, 2 April 2025 (UTC)

I've been in the textile industry all my working life, and claim some trivial expertise. I've just never heard o this about cotton. Thank you for responding. - Roxy the dog 21:35, 2 April 2025 (UTC)

Top producer of cotton

"India is the world's largest producer of cotton."

This statement is from a source from 2009. Since 2023, China has surpassed India in cotton production.

Source: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/cotton-production-by-country#top-10-countries-that-produce-the-most-cotton-2023 RaikkuVaikku (talk) 07:42, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

Have you read WP:BE_BOLD - "... Fix it yourself instead of just talking about it. In the time it takes to write about the problem, you could instead improve the encyclopedia. Wikipedia not only lets you add and edit articles: it wants you to do it."

A.j.roberts (talk) 18:48, 15 July 2025 (UTC)

Hi A.J.,

My account was new so I could not make an edit directly because the article has semi protection status. I think the way you answered my request to edit was pretty hostile and not in line with the value of encouraging people to participate. Assuming that you have made more than four edits, in the time it took you to respond in such a way, you could have edited the article. I will get my four edits and edit the article unless someone beats me to it. RaikkuVaikku (talk) 16:37, 26 January 2026 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Adaptation and Land Use in Texas

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 20 August 2025 and 5 December 2025. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): GlitterCrayon1 (article contribs). Peer reviewers: LegendInDrafts.

— Assignment last updated by PlantsandPoodles12 (talk) 18:46, 17 October 2025 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 16 November 2025

Change 3th to 3rd. ElliotCantSpell (talk) 08:26, 16 November 2025 (UTC)

 Done. NotJamestack (talk) 08:32, 16 November 2025 (UTC)