Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-05-27
COTTON PICKING.
Valuable InyentiOn-A Cotton Pick
ing Gin.

Valuable InyentiOn-AC Cotton Pick
ing Gin.
We have accounts from the Southwest
of the invention of new cotton gin,
which promises to be of incalculable Bone
fit to the cotton planter.
Since emancipation, no part of the de-
tails for cultivating and preparing the cot
ton 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 day,
now rarely exceed the half of that amount.
Indeed, the question of the future supply
of cotton from the South has depended,
not 80 much on the amount which, with
our present labor system, we could actu-
ally produce, but rather how much could
we pick and gather from the fields. There
is hardly planter in the South who,
since the war, has gathered the crop with
the same number of hands required to
sultivateit. Cotton picking" and fodder
pulling seem to be the pet aversion of ne
gro field laboroIS.
The inventor of the new gin claims that
by the introduction and use of his ma
chine, the old, tedious and troublesome
plan, of picking the cotton from the bolls
in the field by hand, is entirely dispensed
with. An exchange, in giving descrip-
ton of this new invention, says: at is
now only necessary o.pluck 'bolls, cotton
and all, from the stalk. Three or four
bolls can be grasped at once and torn
away, and in this Acrude state they are
placed in the receffer 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
merely sends his hands into the field,
where they gather, in the most
Apid manner, all the matured cot
bns whether the bolls are open or
not 1t is stored in this state until o
convenient time for running through the
machine. 1t is estimated that one hand
can pick one thousand pounds of cotton
| in the new way quicker than a person
could pick one hundred and fifty pounds
| after the old style. 1t is said that on 8
plantation of five hundred acres of bottom
land, a single machine will save, in cottor
and labor, from 81, 900 to $4,000 year
| Besides turning out better article, the
| new machine will extract at least fifteer
| per cent more cotton than was saved un
| der the old process. The price will b.
| about fifty per cent more than the oil
apparatus. but old gins can be so change,
as TO be utilized il connection with tn
new lventiOn.
| If this gin shall perform all that j
claimed for it, the benefits which the cot
ton planter VIII d,iive from its lntroduc
ton will lie of incalculable value. Their
are two points OF excellence claimed il
which weGeel well assured there viii b
failures. We do not believe that ii wi
ever be possible 10 get machine wbic
will be able TO get cotton of a good qnali
~ out of unopened or uCmatured bolls
nor 10 We have any faith in the statemer
that the quality of the cotton is improve
by heing picked from the bolls by ms
ciinI. We do have faith, however, il
the capacity Of American ingenuity t
nefekt a machine which will rapidly ser
arate the cotton from the bolls in place c
the tresent tedious system OF hand picl
ing. F a- 20
WE learn that arrangements have bee
madN for placing large number of the:
machines in the market in time for gait
erinA the growing crop, and trust TIL
careful and intelligent experiments ms
be made by planters TO test their value.
AudhSta Chronicle and Sc'atileL