The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1886-11-04
THE PROBLEM OF THE CENTURY.
Practical Success of the Mason Cotton
Picker.

of the National Cotton Planters Associa.
tion. The committee was composed of
Mr.. R. P. Duncan, of Mississippi. the
Hon. ]. T. Henderson, commissioner of
agriculture of Georgia, and Messrs. John
A. Cobb, ofGeorgia, and j. NJ. Hollings.
worth, of Louisiana-men whose practi
cal ideas and long experience in the
cultivation of the great Southern staple
especially fitted them for the delicate and
responsible task they had to perform.
The Harvester was tested by these gen.
tlemen in the cotton field at Sumter, and
under conditions which demonstrated the
utility of machine which is destined to
work revolution in all the cotton
producing countries in the world. The
report of the committee is most encourag-
ing and is as follows:
CHARLESTON, October IL, 1886.
To Col. F. G. Morehead, President
National Cotton Planters Association of
America: The undersigned, your COM
mittee appointed BY you at the request of
the Mason Cotton Harvester Company,
to inspect, investigate and report upon
the practical operation of the Mason Cot
ton Harvesting Machine for the benefit
of the National Cotton Planters Associa-
ton, have the honor to submit the follow
ing report:
Your committee report that under your
authority they proceeded to Sumter,
South Carolina, and, on the Goth instant,
witnessed for larger part ofthe day, the
practical operation of the said Harvester
in gathering seed cotton from the plant
in the open field.
Your committee are candid to say, that
while some little improvements, in their
opinion, as we'll as that of the inventor,
have yet to be introduced and perfected
in order to present perfectly practical
cotton harvester machine for use by the
cotton planter in the field, your commit.
tee we're most agreeably surprised and
gratifed to witness in operation ma.
chineapproacbing so closelyto apractically
successful cotton harvester, and feel that
they can, with confidence, predict for the
cotton planter, a machine that will, in
the near future, relieve him of the most
distasteful part and expensive item OF
harvesting the cotton crop of the South.
Your Committee would, 1st, more
specifically and particularly report that
the said machine, with two horses and
one negro driver, was. in the presence Of
this committee, placed in practical work
ing operation in small cotton field near
the town of Sumter, South Carolina. The
cotton row was straddled by the machine,
thus placing the same mechanism for
gathering the cotton on each side'of the
row of cotton plants. The team was
driven at the ordinary gait for field work,
and the machine seemed to be, and was,
under the easy management and control
of the driver while turning at the end of
the rows and during each stage OF its
field operations.
2. The machine gathered Of fairly clean
cotton at the rate Of 240 pounds of seed
cotton per hour, from cotton plants that
would not yield more than one bale of
lint cotton to every three acres, and your
committee are satisfied that, if the trial
htd been in cotton yielding move per
acre, the amount gathered by the machine
would have been in the same proportion
increased.
8. Your committee could discover no
damage done, in the operation of the
machine, to the plant in any way, either
to the unopened bolls, or the leaves-on
the stalk, but they are pleased and graft.
fed to be able to report that the machine
practically distinguished between the
the open cotton it was intended to gather,
and the balance of the plant; gathering
one and leaving the other uninjured,
which, in the opinion of your committee,
was the most insurmountable difficulty to
be overcome in the practical operation of
a cotton harvester. This difficulty seems
to have been happily and most success.
fully overcome by the peculiar and in.
genious continuance of the inventor.
4. Your committee report that there
was more cotton wasted upon the ground
in the operation of the machine than they
thought would be allowable in a success.
fully working machine, but they are at
the same time satisfed that much of such
wasting was caused from-frst, slight
defect in the depth Of the part that re-
ceives the cotton from the gathering stems
or fingers, which can be and will be easi.
ly remedied and, second, in the peculiar
condition of the open cotton on most OF
the stalks for machine harvesting. Most
of the cotton in which it was operated
having opened early in August, and
being subjected to the summer drought
on sandy land, was thus rendered unduly
sensitive to the slightest touch or dis.
turbance from the fingers ofthe machine
in passing though the plant. Owing to
the condition of the open cotton as stated,
your committee are satisfied much, if not
the greater part, of said waste is attribu.
table; and they feel equally we'll assured
that the defect alluded to in the cotton
receiver is now being overcome and
remedied in a new and improved machine
which your committee did not see in
operation because not yet completed.
Your committee are of the opinion that
in harvesting cotton as in harvesting
small grain or hay, with machine, the
condition of the crop must be observed
and must control to certain extent the
more successful results to be secured from
the operation of the implement used, and
they can appreciate how the cotton to bo
harvested must, in the nature of things,
be credited with the same indulgence and
fair, impartial consideration.
Your committee, in concluding this
report, beg leave 10 say that the improve.
uaent suggested by the committee will be
overcome in the opinion of the inventor,
Mr.. Mason, in q very short while, and
they congratulate the cotton planters Of
the South upon the present success ofthe
Mason Cotton Harvester, and assure
them, in the opinion of the committee,
the said Mason Cotton Harvester embod.
les the correct principle, and il the near
future its practical and useful operation
will be as complete as the mower and the
self.binder, which seem for years as diff
cult of successful solution.
The special mechanism of the machine
and its practical operation was elaborate
ly explained to your committee, and
with the improvements, which we are
assured will be in short while completed
in perfected machine, your committee
are constrained to confidently hope and
believe that the Cotton Harvester will be
practical success, the more serious
difficulties having been already practical