COMPANIES EXPERIMENT WITH COLORFUL COTTON

Some cotton growers have fields of brown, red and green fluff.

"Actually, we have two shades of brown, and one of light green," said Wallace Hofmann, vice president for production for the nation's leading colored cotton company, Natural Cotton Colours of Wickenburg, Ariz.

The company, about 60 miles northwest of Phoenix, was founded by entomologist Sally Fox who started growing colored cotton for hand spinners and weavers in the early 1980s.

The company contracts with farmers in Texas, Arizona and New Mexico to grow the colored cotton, which is sold worldwide, by the bale.

Other color cotton companies have emerged, and the cotton is being raised in Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia and California.

Eight cotton farmers participated in experimental planting of the naturally colored cotton in the Eastern area in 1994.

The colored fluff is processed into cloth that is gaining in popularity with environmentally conscious consumers and people who are allergic to the dyes in regular cotton.

"Our color cotton is raised organically," said Hofmann.

Americans bought $30 million worth of earth-friendly color clothing last year and the market is expanding.

Natural cotton products, produced without dyes or bleaches, are already featured regularly in L.L. Bean and Lands' End mail-order catalogs.

Enid Stepner, L.L. Bean spokesman, said customers liked the all-nataural products.

Phil Young, merchandising manager for Lands' End, said the color cotton has a good future, but that continued growth would depend on the ability to develop more colors.

Scientists are trying to breed new varieties with longer, stronger fibers and higher yields. An improved green variety should be available in two years and a genetically engineered blue version is on the way.

The National Cotton Council of Memphis, Tenn., does not keep a check on color cotton acreage yet, but it is estimated that farmers grow more than 20,000 acres of the colored fluff, nationally.

The council, said spokesman Fred Middleton, welcomes colored cotton. "It serves a certain market," he said. "Anything that contributes to the consumption level of cotton is a plus for the industry overall."

Some people are astounded to learn that cotton comes in any other color than white, Hofmann said. "We receive numerous requests for samples."

A number of companies are involved in the breeding of color cotton and contract with farmers to raise crops.

Colored cotton sells for $1.30 to $1.40 a pound, compared with 65 cents to 70 cents for white cotton. But yields on colored cotton are lower, so farmers may not see the difference in profits.

Colored cotton may yield only one 500-pound bale to an acre, compared with more than two bales an acre for regular cotton.

The colored cotton has been grown for years in Russia, India and South and Central America, and Israel.

But, white cotton still dominates. Mills like it because it can be dyed to keep pace with changes in fashions.