“The town of Wilson has been around so long, and there’s always been cotton around it,” said Johns. “There’s a gin there, and the soil here is best suited for cotton. The town, like our cotton production, is just growing.” Cotton acres blooming across the state After hitting a low of 201,000 acres in 2015, Arkansas’s cotton production has rebounded with 463,000 acres in 2018…an increase of 131 percent. In addition to the gin in Wilson, the state has an additional 32 locations that gin cotton. Sammy Angel, a fourth generation cotton producer in Lake Village, said cotton producers have to be greater risk takers than other row crop growers due to the infrastructure investment and the fluctuation of the market; but the outcome has potential to be greater as well. “You’ve got to love cotton to grow cotton,” said Angel. “Cotton is a fiber, and everyone is going to wear cotton at some point in their day. To have a part in clothing America makes it worth it for me.” Although the cotton market continues to rise and fall, interest to grow this beautiful traditional crop remains the same. Growing cotton is more than a choice of seed; it’s a lifestyle -- one that those in the town of Wilson and throughout the Arkansas Delta know and love dearly. Employees of the Wilson Cotton Gin 48 ARKANSAS GROWN
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