The times and democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, 1886-04-01
THE COTTON HARVESTER.
A MACHINE THAT WILL PICK THRet
BALES PER DAY.

Chance of the Picker Being Useu OH tiie
Next Crop--Mr. Mason Hard at Work to
Perfect it.
In the Southern Bivouac for April is
an extended description Of the Cotton
picker or Harvester, accompanied by
numerous illustrations. which concludes
as follows:
The machine IS absolutely harmless
to the plant. No matter in what state
or condition the plant is in, or what sea-
son the harvester is run over a row, no
damage will follow. The writer saw
Mr.. Mason break the stems of over a
dozen burrs on thickly-clustered stalk,
until they were hanging by the finest
filament, and after the picker stems had
passed through not one was>torn of. 1t
seems almost miraculous that this could
be, as they were attached by such a
slight fiber. A darky, bungling into
that bush with his fingers, couldn't have
helped tearing off half of them. Had the
burrs contained lint the ligament would
have gwen way, Of course, and the burr
would have been jerked from its broken
stem. But the machine has never been
known of itself to break boil or a
bloom in the field. Wet or dry it does
its work. + have seen cotton picked by
it in such wet and soaked condition
that, when allowed to dry naturally in
the sacks, it became as hard and caked
as plaster of paris. ,
It has yet its defects, Of course. and
it is far from the object Of this article to
conceal them. The first is, that as at
present constructed 1t can not work in
cotton over five feet high. That can
easily be overcome by making different
sizes of the machine adapted. to ordinary
and to rank growths. Nine-tenths OF
the cotton, however, now grown IN the
South can be harvested with the present
size.
Again, the machine sometimes drops
little cotton from the picker stems be-
fore they enter the box.
Also the cotton, as 1t passes up on
the elevators to enter the sack, is some
times blown off on windy days. This
can readily be prevented by covers,
which have never been put on except
for the purpose of experiment, because
Mr.. Mason did not want any part of the
interior workings of the machine hidden
from view while he was studying and i'm
proving it.
In the fourth place, boil is oc-
casionally passed over andleft ungather-
ed. This occurs seldom, and practically
is Of little consequence, two trips gen.
orally cleaning a row thoroughly. When
a.holli accidentally Left twill be gather
Cd at the next picking, for. the planter
cau run over his crop so rapidly and so
often that a boil left here and there is
of slight Importance. This frequent
harvesting must also necessarily result
in a better grade Of cotton, as the fields
can always be kept clean in advance of
q rain.
Finally, the harvester sometimes
fails to gather the lowest bolls when
dat on the ground in the dirt. That is
difficult to remedy without introducing
complications which would seriously
interfere with the working Of the other
parts of the machine.
But Mr.. Mason is hard at work
remedying, as rapidly as possible, these
defects as they present themselves, and
is confident of bringing the harvester's
present capacity oftwo thousand pounds
of seed cotton per day up to double that
amount, or three bales per day, and of
reducing the cost Of picking to less than
one dollar bale.
And all this by one man and one
mule!
1t is impossible for the syndicate to
place the harvester on the market in
time for the next crop, as Mr.. Mason
will himself be compelled to wait until
fall to test the changes he has now in
progress. They are in no hurry, and
do not hesitate to say that the machine
will never be sold until its present de-
fects are effectually overcome, be that
time when it may.
But as these defects are triffling, and
as even with them the harvester does
excellent service, it is fair to conclude
that Mr.. Mason, having already &C.
complished the most difficult portion of
his WORK, will not be long in presenting
the public with q machine perfect in all
its parts. When that time does come,
the present declaration Of the syndicate
will be the best guarantee of the ma
chimes actual efficiency,
Its cost has not yet been fully deter
mined, ss it is not known in exactly
what shape it will be finally put upon
the market. Mr.. Mason states, how
ever, that the price will at first probably
be about equal to that asked for SUBJ
stantial reaper or twinc binder-per-
haps less-say from two hundred to
two hundred and fifty dollars. That
will put them within easy reach of any
one making twenty bales or upward.
The province Of this article does not
extend 10 the effect Of the introduction
of the cotton-harvcste upon the indus
tries Of the South. It's description and
history we're all that was compassci in
the scope OF these pages.
Dut il, by its assistance, into the !