Cotton bale

A "bale of cotton" is also the standard trading unit for cotton on the wholesale national and international markets. Although different cotton-growing countries have their bale standards, for example, In the United States, cotton is usually measured at approximately 0.48 cubic meters (17 cu ft) and weighs 226.8 kilograms (500 pounds).[4] In India, the standard bale size is 170 kg.[5][6][7][8]

The most important parameters of a cotton bale are:

• Density (448 kg/m³)[7]
• Measurements of the bales (nominally 1.40 m X 0.53 m X 0.69 m)[9][7]
• Weight (Varies, but ‘statistical’ bale weighs 480 lb)[7]

Advances in standardization are reducing the variation in weights, sizes, dimensions, and densities of cotton bales.[5][11]

Candy is another trading unit. A candy weighs approximately 2.09 bales (356 kg).[12] In India, ginned cotton is traded in terms of candy also which weighs 356 kg (355.62 kg).[13][14][8]

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  Cotton Field at Singalandapuram, Rasipuram, India (2017)
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  Cotton field
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  Cotton plant

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  Cotton ready for harvest in Andhra, south India
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  A cotton field, late in the season
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  Cotton plowing in Togo, 1928
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  Picking cotton in Armenia in the 1930s. No cotton is grown there today.
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  A group of Egyptian fellahs picking cotton by hand
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  Hand picking cotton (Tashkent, Uzbekistan)
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  A module builder
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  Cotton modules in a harvested cotton field (Clinch County, Georgia, USA, January 2014).
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  Case IH Module Express 625 picks cotton and simultaneously builds cotton modules
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  Cotton modules in Australia (2007)

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  A model of a 19th-century cotton gin on display at the Eli Whitney Museum in Hamden, Connecticut
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  Diagram of a modern cotton gin plant, displaying numerous stages of production
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  Modern ginning machines in working
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  Cotton bales at the port in Bombay, India, 1860's.
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  Cotton ready for shipment, Houston, Texas (postcard, circa 1911)