The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1891-08-01
FARMERAND PLANTER.
THE HARVEST PROBLEM.

W coSh ~ tiiic Cllitl H.
dustry of the south. II some one could
s1'' get machine that would do the
work quickly, then the cotton industry
would be a golden one Ifor the farmer.
For the present there is not much en-
couragement for him 10 exert himself
and turn bis labor into extra bales of
the fieecy staple. suppose he does
make eighteen bales instead of twelve
hy his Individual labor. twelve bales
are all he can possibly pick out in the
season OF nincty-six days, granting that
he can pick 200 pounds day, which
rs more than the average man can do.
Then there are always days among the
ninety-six which are mnserviceable as
contemplating days; there are DAYS
wnen he has his bursting headaches, or
when the fence is ddwu. or there are
other things of no ldss exacting char
acter to prevent him from gathering,
and even for the man with the little
FAMILY twelve bales, easy enough to
raise, are very hard I'd get picked out.
so that when he exerds himself or the
weather has been pfopitious, and he
raises eighteen, he hst either see the
extra six rot in the field or go to the
expense OF hiring hepicking done, and
10y the time he has paid for the picking
which, after all, is about the best-paid
work on the farm-pafd for the baling
and done the hauling, his good fortune
has dwindled to an uncertain little trifie.
Time and again vague rumors of the
success of some efficient machine have
come, but just as bitten they have
proved to be naught, ind the problem
'of gathering cotton continues in just
about the condition sdt forth in the pre-
ceviing paragraph.
The latest story comes from a ma
chine ut Waco. that may or may not be
forgotten within thu year. In either
case 1t is well enough to look about for
some more practicable method of get
ting over the difficulty than machine.
For it certainly loolfs impossible for
anything less perfect in mechanism,
less instinct with HUMAN intelligence
than human fingers to pick clean cot
ton. Machines are all. too impartial
They would be just as well pleased to
put the wood, the dirt and the woody
fiber of the stalk intd the sack as they
would be to put the cotton. 1t seems
as if the problem isl to remain within
human fingers and lie solved there, if
solved at all.
{ There is possibility that cotton
picking may be madd craft at which
;skillfull artisans. woF lxing for less even
than the rates nowl paid, can make
good wages. There hre men who can
do it now, but they tre regarded as ac-
scidents of creation, dnd they excite lit
tie curiosity as To their methods,
among the very people who could emu
late them with profit Some of them
can pick 600 pounds bf cotton in a day
They are simply mas ters of the craft, a
craft that is yet in itb infancy. There
is no reason why all men who raise
cotton should not ledrn to gather it in
a skillful way. Th}y must learn it by
fast practice and by watching the
methods of those who are already
skillful. There is no intel
ligent reason WHY there should
be so much difference between
the abilities of two active men in
a cotton field, as that one should pick
six hundred dayland the other one
hundred. The merd fact of the case is
that one has applied himself with de-
sire to acquire SIKH and the other is
either a novice or has never thought
there was anything to be studied or
learned about thei matter In hand.
There is no such di4ferenc in the speed
of other artisans pf two typewriters
Of equal practice AID training one will
probably write THOUSAND words while
another writes mind hundred OF two
hat makers, of two sail makers, of two
timers, the work Of one may be to that
of the other as ten to nine in given
time, but never as two to one. If it
should ever happenI so, the slow work.
man would be told that he was only an
apprentice and set 10 learn new lessons
AN EXPERT INTERVIEWER.
Some time ago half dozen men were
sitting in the upho1 stered wagonette at
the depot waiting for the train when
the subject turned bn cotton picking.
81 can pick a hundred and fifty
pounds day." said one
"And have gon} as high as two hum
dred." said number two.
81 was reared oh farm and have
done my share Of grabbing at the
staple, but l cou9 dn't get over sixty
pounds il sixty-onel were needed to save
my neck" said thelthird.
"Mr. Ran McCalla can pick that much
in an hour. He can pick a pound a
minute and hold cut at it for weeks,
working ten hou3s and more every
day" rejoined somf one.
This statement fingered in the mind
of q Chronicle scribe who heard It, and
Mr.. McCalla beingIan intelligent young
lawyer, it was hoped that he could give
some explanation pr the methods which
enabled him to SO liar outstrip the av-
erage as a cotton picker. He was found
in the midst of some legal business
Monday, but stopHed with characters
tic courtesy wheA approached on the
II IL 49,