Cotton short fiber is defined in the U.S. as fibers having length less than 0.5 inches.  Because short fibers are so deleterious to our customers in the textile-manufacturing sector, the preservation of cotton quality through the control and elimination of short fiber has been the focus of enormous attention amongst breeders, growers, and ginners.  Research on cotton short fiber in the U.S. is a team effort, involving substantial resources of the National Cotton Council of America, Cotton Incorporated, USDA, and State and private universities working closely with cotton industries across the Cotton Belt.  In the future, short fiber content (SFC) of cotton will be an increasing challenge to the marketing and utilization of cotton.  Pioneering research on cotton short fiber has shed light on its origin and its relation to fiber breakage.  However, fiber breakage mechanisms are controversial, and raise new questions about the relative contribution to SFC of fiber properties and ginning technology.  In this demonstration, well-established educational aids called Cuisenaire® Rods were used to visualize experimentally the effect of fiber breakage on the cotton fiber length distribution during post-harvest processing.  This simple model showed that fiber breakage produced changes in fiber length distributions that were qualitatively similar to known changes that occur in seed cotton fiber as it is processed into the bale.  It was also illustrated that the shape of the final distribution was related to the amount and type of breakage that was imposed.