Terroir (French pronunciation: from terre, land) is the set of all environmental factors that affect a crop's phenotype, including unique environment contexts, farming practices and a crop's specific growth habitat.
Eli Whitney, a native of Massachusetts, secured a patent on the cotton gin in 1793, though patent office records indicate that the first cotton gin may have been built by a machinist named Noah Homes two years before Whitneyâs patent was filed.
Some of the oldest cotton bolls were discovered in a cave in TehuacÃ¡n Valley, Mexico, and were dated to approximately 5500 BCE, but some doubt has been cast on these estimates. Seeds and cordage dating to about 2500 BCE have been found in Peru. By 3000 BCE cotton was being grown and processed in Mexico, and Arizona.