Cotton

Cotton was one of the first cultivated plants. There is evidence that the cotton plant was cultivated in India as long as 5,000 years ago. Specimens of cotton cloth as old as 5,000 years have been found in Peru, and scientists have found ancient specimens of the cotton plant dating 7,000 years old in caves near Mexico City. Cotton was one of the resources sought by Columbus, and while he did not manage to find a shorter route to India, he did find species of cotton growing wild in the West Indies.