The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1889-11-21
The Cotton Harvest.

Simple as the operation of picking
and handling cotton is. it requires a
degree Of care and Judgment, not APP
parent to the casual observer to har-
vest prepare and market a crop of
cotton so as to get the best results in
money, while at the same time no
other interest on the farm is permit
ted to suffer. Labor is the most ex-
pensive item connected with the whole
buslness-the manual labor required
to simply pull the cotton from the
yielding bolls. 1t is astonishing to
consider that it costs not less than five
or six dollars to pick a bale of cotton
from the stalk and put in the baskets,
while the same may be ginned and
baled, ready for market for two dol
lars, or less! Stain and soil, generally
the result of long exposure in the
open bolls, are the chief causes which
affect the relative market values of
two samples of cotton. The aim, then,
should be to encourage the doing of
large tasks each day, and going over
the crop as rapidly as possible When
the fields are white with cotton, everv
day witnesses a change for the worse
in the condition of the lint, even if no
drop of rain falls on the field. It gets
lighter, the color pales under sunlight
and repeated dewfalls, and trash from
decaying leaves and debris becomes
more abundant and persistent. But
when the storms of rain and wind fall
upon the heavy-laden stalks, the lint
may be damaged in value in a single
day enough to have paid for the pick
ing OF every pound Of the exposed cot
ton.
Let the work of gathering be pushed
from the very start until the bulk of
the crop is safely housed. It is all
very well to pick the cotton more or
less free of trash and leaf, and to ham
die it carefully in the few processes
through which it passes before it
reaches the market; but it is a very
easy matter to be ''too particular
about trash, and so discourage the
pickers by reducing their earnings as
to delay the harvesting of the crop
and expose it to the far more serious
casualty of storms of rain and wind
continued bleaching and bluing.
Many's the time, with call hands,
and all that could be induced to come
into the field by fair promises and
prompt performance, we have pushed
the work and succeeded in safely
housing picking of several hundred
pounds to the acre over large field,
justin time to save it from a disastrous
storm.
In such cases we have often realized
a net saving of one cent in the pound
on all the cotton gathered during the
week, after paying the cost of picking:
and the saving is often, or might often
be, much more. Compare a sample Of
cotton from lot picked the day before
a bad spell of weather with a sample
from the same field picked after the
spell, make allowance for the absolute
loss in quantity and loss in quality.
and the statement just made will be
thought very moderate.
The fact is. the harvesting of cotton
and the separation of trash from it, ia
a labor that should be accomplished
by machinery; it is too taxing upon
hands, and retards the general results.
But if we must harvest by hand, let
the improved gin and careful manipu-
lation in the modern ginnery do the
rest of the work.
We beg to remind our readers of the
damaged cotton seed so generally COM
planned Of IN some large sections of the