I'm Still Wiggling and Weaving and Even Webbing

I've read my books and done the searching that I can think of to do. As I was rereading my own blog, I remembered the local county extension agent had told me to do a Google search with the state name + county extension office. I had forgotten about that, but had needed to find out which states grew cotton before I could do that research! I started on that path and discovered a webpage with all the state county extension webpages which made things easier: http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/netlinks/ces.html. Surprisingly, there was very little information at any of the states' county extension webpages that was of value for me. Most was quite technical and useful for a cotton farmer. Alabama had a coloring page or two that I thought would be useful for the classroom.
I was judging my sources as I read, ready to trust whatever I found at the county extension sites, but found very little! Most of the websites I checked, I found believable because several of them were national organizations such as the National Cotton Council. One specific site called Cottons Journey had lots of information for helping children learn about how cotton grows. I didn't see a specific tie to a national organization, but addresses and phone numbers were given for contact and ordering information. One website, written by a cotton grower (grows it for spinning on a small scale), indicates that a cotton plant will last several years if not frostbitten. That little tidbit I'm wondering about. I have my own cotton plant to test it out.....and I have it indoors where it will not get frostbitten (which is what this woman says she does). Time will tell.
The books I read had copyrights of 1977, 1982 and 1994. I really wanted an up-to-date title with information about how to grow cotton. What has changed over the years? One book I read with a copyright of 2006 was not about how to grow cotton, but about the history of the cotton industry in America from colonial times to the present. It was this book that had me thinking about bigger issues about cotton growing for older children to pursue.