The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1884-08-07

He shows you everything and tells
YOU what he thinks of doing that he
has not done. He gave me one OF
the little revolving tubes that picks
:: the cotton from the bolls. 1t IS
seven inches long and about ! IA
inches in diameter. This little
thing is the invention. All the
rest of the contrivance is to put II
in motion. Four dozen OF them
will be working at once on cotton
stock and if there is any cotton
open they will find it. There are
two upright cylinders three ieet
high that straddle cotton row like
sulky plow straddles q row OF
-. t.-..21sa -, 80 these little tubs reyolVe
corn aI}i y:,ssrGs affg cylinders. They
horizontally in teie'eJ, ap'dly'
turned round and round T., Ge
The cylinders revolve on their axis
and these tubes revolve on theirs as
they follow the cylinders round and
round. They are sure to touch every
boil and if the cotton has opened
and swells out q fraction Of an inch
the little delicate points of the
pickers get it and roll it all out in
an instant and by reversed motion
unload it on a platform and from
there it is carried up and put in q
sack and packed until it is full.
Horse power pulls the machine
along the row. The machine weighs
three hundred pounds. Some of
them are made for three feet cotton
and some for four and some for
five, I saw the little spindles set to
work on cotton bolls half opened
an: they left nothing, and yet they
will revolve in your hand and not
hurt you or prick you. There are
800 sharp points in each spindle.
They are just under the surface and
will catch the lint but not catch
your flesh or the leaves or the stems.
The imperfect machine of last year
picked 300 pounds an hour. The
perfect machine which he has now
is expected to pick 600 pounds an
hour. Mr.. Mason has his own ma
chinery, makes his own lathe and
his dies and stamps and wheels and
everything. He is backed by cap
ital unlimited and has refused
million of dollars that was offered
him. He is making large machines
for Texas and Arkansas and small
Ter ones for the eastern states.
His plan is to charge royalty and
let the machines he made anywhere.
1t is thing oclife and sense and
does just what you tell it to do.
When the cotton is well open for
the first picking it goes along and
picks it and then you wait for the
next picking. 1t takes in no dead
leaves, nothing but cotton. Now
he has gin that operates on the
same principle. These little pick
ers have expanded into a cylinder
as long as the shaft and as large
round as gin saw and they catch
the lint and al iron bar keeps the
seed from following the lint and
forces them back. The lint is not
cut or torn. He is using Wine
ship frame, taking out the saws and
and putting his cylinder in their
place. It gins twice as fast as the
saws and there ID no danger to
hands or arms, put my open hand
on the cylinder while it was making
1000 revolutions = minute. He
dropped handful! of single nails
in the opening ani they were carried
through in an instant and did no
harm. Experts f ON northern fac
tories say the lint is worth ten per
cent more than lint cut by the old
method.
I was rumiaating over this new
mode of picking cotton, and to my
mind tits going to work revolution
in our farming. In the first place
a poor man can't buy one. In the
next place he can't afford to give
fifty cents a hundred for picking
when his nabor, who has got ma
chine can pick his for ten cents a
hundred or less. Then again the
machine wont work well on rough
or hilly land, and 80 that kind Of
land will have to be planted in
something else.
So I take it that poor folks and
poor land will have to quit cotton
and that will be a blessing. 1t
may be, however, that some inter
prising fellers will buy machine
and 60 about the settlement picking
for the farmer inst like they go
about now threshing their wheat.
What will become of the nigger
women and children in cotton time,
I don't know; maybe we can hire
them to cook and wash after while
when they cant get anything else to
do. l hope so.
Sumter is a good old town; the
best shaded town I know Of; elms
and water oaks everywhere, and
lonely cottage homes set back in
spacious lots and surrounded with
shade and beautiful flowers, and
the sweetest girls sitting in the
broad piazzas, and the prettiest
children playing in the grass, and
the good people are so hospitable
and homelike and the preachers so
gentle and kind, and have such good
eating, and our jolly landlord of the
Jervey house 50 merry and enter