From the boll to finished cloth, cotton is produced by a series of processes, each one of which is important to the quality of the finished product. When the fruit of the cotton plant splits, opens and dries, the cotton lint clings to seeds and harvesting is carried out by machine or hand. The harvested flowers are chemically defoliated - all the bolls are made to open at the same time. The seeds are then separated from their fibres (ginning), and compacted into bales before shipping. On arrival at the cotton mill, the cotton is disentangled, cleaned, blended and ultimately formed into lap (wide sheets of loosely matted cotton). Once the cotton fibres have been cleaned and separated (carding), they are then stretched (drawing) and are then made ready for spinning into yarn (spun thread). Cotton cloth is then woven by interlacing lengthwise threads (the 'warp') and crosswise threads (the 'weft') on a loom. There are a number of intermediary steps within these main processes. The cotton cloth is then ready for bleaching, dyeing or other chemical treatments, prior to design and use in clothing and other cotton products.