Los Angeles daily herald., 1886-11-28
5 ooo ooo and 6, ,ooo, OOo bales. The cot

3 600. 600 and q, 000, OUO bales. Inc cot-
ton. gin, however, did not exhaust all
the possibilities in the direction of in
creased production. In fact, while it
enabled the farmer to prepare a larger
amount of cotton for the market, it did
not enable or even help him to grow
one pound more of the fiber than he
could have grown if the gin had never
been invented What the gin utterly
failed to do in this respect the Mason
harvester will accomplish on so large
SC Ne that 1t may very well indeed lead
to revolution in the cotton-u producing
and manufacturing industries of the
world.
1t is well known in the South that
the proportions of the cotton crop are
materially restricted by the difficulty OF
harvesting it. Putting the matter in he
plainest way, it may be said that any
farmer can cultivate very many more
acres of cotton than he can harvest with
the force employed in its cultivation.
1t has always been necessary, therefore,
for the cotton-planter to depend upon
hiring additional hands at the picking
season, or to restrict the acreage planted
in cotton so as to keep it within easy
control. Even with these limitations
much of the crop is wasted, and on the
generous land of the Mississippi bottoms
and elsewhere in the South it is by no
means rare sight to see the ground
deeply covered with the lint that has
fallen before it could be gathered.
What will be the effect on the crop o.
the future of giving to every planter and
farmer the assurance that he can read
lily gather in few days all of the fiber
that he can produce by devotlug his
whole laboring force to the work of
cultivation, throughout the entire sea-
son, is, as we have said, difficult to esti-
mate.
The immense importance and value of
the Mason harvester lie in the fact that
it affords precisely the assurance that we
have indicated. One harvester, driven
by one man, can gather as much cotton
as ten or twelve expert pickers can
gather in the same time. 1t performs
its work, moreover, with the same accu-
racy at night as in the daytime, so that
each machine can lie operated in the
picking season to represent the work OF
twenty or more tirstclass pick ers.
w uhteNtr may oe tue CapdCtly Vi tHo
harvester as it stands, therefore, it is
evidence that it promises to remove all
heretofore existing restrictions upon the
acreage that could be devoted to the
cultivation of cotton, leaving besides a
considerable reserve capacity to meet
any future demands What these de-
mands may be cannot be anticipated. 1t
is enough to know that the harvester is
capable of more work than can be re.
quired of it for years to come, and that
its tendency will be to stimulate the
production of cotton to the highest
possible point.
Nor is this all. The value Of the ma.
chine to the farmer of the South will
not only be felt in the way Of enabling
them to double their most important and
profitable crop, but it will enable them
at the same time to handle that crop
much more economically. 1t is estimat.
ed that the cost of harvesting crop OF
G, ZOO, 600 bales amounts to at least $40,
100000. With the general use of the
Mason harvester this cost will be re.
duced by three.fourths at least, saving
to the Southern States on this single ac.
count about S30,000,O00 every year.
Charleston News and Courier.