Seven states, stretching across the South from Georgia to California, make up America's Cotton Belt. Still a major crop throughout the world, the Cotton Belt produces 80 percent of America's cotton, helping propel the United States to second in the world's cotton production.
   Here in Dooly County, one of the nation's leaders in cotton, the Georgia State Cotton Museum illustrates both the good and evil of cotton production. Here in Vienna, visitors may walk through two centuries of cotton history. Displaying tools and related farm implement exhibits, the museum conveys the state's saga of early cotton production, cotton's impact on the economy, as well outlining century old slavery issues. Established in 1996, museum displays follow the planting cycle from sowing seeds through harvest and processing. Here in Dooly County, a few dedicated citizens realized how the cotton plant played an important part of their lives and assisted in establishing the Georgia Cotton Museum.
   Upland cotton represents nearly 95 percent of all cotton production, and Dooly County is the perfect place to witness snow in the South. Here in the fall, vast fields of white offer a strong contrast to the rich red earth. Georgia's perfect weather for growing cotton leads to huge white bolls of extra-long staple fibers. These long rows of cotton plants, captured at daybreak, are just bursting with some of the finest cotton in the world.

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