By Alabama Public Radio
Washington, DC – A recent survey suggests Hurricane Ivan damaged about 400-thousand bales of cotton in Alabama. The state's projected harvest was 850-thousand bales. Despite the massive losses in parts of the southeast, the U-S cotton crop is still expected to be the largest in history. The Department of Agriculture projects the national harvest will be 21-point-five million bales. That's about an 18 percent increase from last year's 18-point-three million bales. The current national record is 20-point-three million harvested bales, which was set in 2001.