(Note: The following is part of a series of articles looking at the history and evolution of agriculture in Georgia and Bulloch County.) In the 1700s, there were four basic materials used to make clothing: cotton, silk, wool and flax. Cotton was first planted as a garden crop in Virginia in 1621. In 1661, after the passage of the Navigation Act by which King Charles II had robbed Virginians of the means of making a living through the sale of tobacco — their main cash crop — planting cotton took hold.