Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1870-05-30
CoTTlNG PICKING.
A New and Valuable invention "A Cotton
Picking Gin.

From the Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel
We have accounts from the South
west Of the invention of a new cotton
gin, which promises to be of inealcu-
liable benefit to the cotton planter.
Since emancipation, no part of the
details for cultivating and preparing
the cotton crop for market has given
planters half the trouble they have
experienced in getting their crops
picked and housed ready for the gin.
Hands who, before the war, averaged
200 and $50 pounds a day, now rarely
exceed half of that amount. Indeed,
the question of the future supply of
cotton from the South has depended,
not so much on the amount which,
with our present labor system we
could actually produce, but rather
how much could we pick and
gether from the fields. There is hard
Nv a planter in the South who, since
the war, has gathered the crop with
the same number of hands required to
cultivare it. Cotton picking and
fodder pulling seem to be the pet aver
sion of negro field laborers.
The inventor of the new gin claims
| that by the introduction and use of
his machine the old, tedious and
troublesome plan of picking the cot
ton from the bOlls in the field by
hand is entirely dispensed with. AN
exchange, in giving a description OF
this new invention, says: ut Is now
only necessary to pluck 'bOlls, cotton
and ALL from the stalk. Three or
four bOlls a be grasped at once and
torn away, and in this crude state
they are placed in the receiver of the
machine, which separates the cotton
from the husks, leaves, stem, dirt and
sand, by running it through the
picker as fast as it is wanted
for ginning The planter mere
Nv sends his hands into the field,
| where they gather, in the most
rapid manner, all the matured cot
ton, whether the bolts are open or
not. 1T is stored in this state untIa
convenient time for running through
the machine. 1t is estimated that one
hand a pick one thousand pounds
of cotton in the new way quicker
than a person could pick one hundred
and fifty pounds alter the old style. 1t
is said that on a plantation of five
hundred acres of bottom land, a sim
| gle machine will save, in cotton and
labor, from $1,000 to $4,000 a year.
| Besides turning out a better article,
the new machine will extract at least
fifteen e cent. more cotton than was
saved under the old process. The
price will be about fifty per cent.
more than the old apparatus but old
gins can be so changed as to be Htil-
lied in connection with the new in-
venten.n
If this gin shall perform all that is
claimed for it, the benefits which the
cotton planter will derive from its in
PRODUCTION will be of ~inealculaple val
ue. There are two points OF excel
lence claimed in which We ieel well
assured there will be failures. I'VE
do not believe that it will ever be pos
sible to get a machine which will be
able to gin cotton of a goodiquallty
out of unopened or punmatured b0lls,
nor do we have any faith in the state
ment that the quality of the cotton is
improved by being picked from the
boIls by a machine. We do have
faith, however, in the capacity OF
American ingenuity to perfect q ma
chine which viii rapidly Separate the
cotton from the 'boiis in place Of the