The Bossier banner., 1892-03-24
FARMER AND PLANTER.
THE COTTON PICKER.
Has 1t Really Come; and, Will 1t Be q
Success?

The recent exhibition at the Dallas
(Tex.) fair of cotton picker picking
cotton in fairly satisfactory way at
the rate of an acre an hour, was won
derful event, and one that bid fair to
revolutionize in a great measure the
whole cotton industry. have waited
long and patiently the advent of this
''long-felt want" l never doubted its
coming. and although this machine may
be crude and ill-adjusted, it did pick
cotton-something that it's predecessors
land there have been number) have
thus far failed to do.
There are very few people who be-
lieve that it is possible to pick cotton
by machinery. They are pretty evenly
divided into two classes; those who
know all, and those who know nothing
abo ut it. The conceit of the one has
not permitted him to give it much
thought, and the interest of the other
has not moved him in that direction.
B ut there have always been those who
were satisfied that it was only a ques-
ton of time when such a machine
would be produced, and whilst its ad-
with the maxim that 'everything comes
in its own good time"
During the last twenty years there
has been a good deal of skill and
thought given to this matter. Many
devices have been tried, and some pat
ents have been issued for machines to
pick cotton, but somehow they have
thus far all failed to pick, for it does
not necessarily follow that because a
to do a certain thing that it does it.
There are number of patents on fly
ing machines, but somehow they don't
fly. / surmise that it is owing largely
to the fact that as yet flying ma
chine snot an absolute need; we are do
ing very well without it, but when the
time shall come that it will add to the
convenience, comfort and welfare of
mankind, you will see them sailing
through the air in all directions.
Whoever gives a cotton picker much
thought, arrives, perhaps too hastily to
the conclusion that it must necessarily
be a complicated and expensive ma
chine. / imagine that it was this con-
clusion that wrecked the hopes and rem
dered futile the efforts of those who
have attempted to produce a cotton
picker. They undertook to do too
much, and failed to do anything. That
was my case, for once 1 had fool no.
tion that could build a cotton picker,
and after studying the situation with
some care, 1 commenced where most
men who fail at anything do commence
at the wrong end. 1 had the credit
of being something of a genius, and
with very good opportunities produced
a machine that it would have been no
sin to have fallen down and wor-
SHIPPED. for it was the image of moth
ing on the face of the earth, in
the heavens above, or the waters be-
meath. There was wheels and rollers
and belts, and card clothing, and steel
brushes, and cogs and gears, and cranks
and eccentrics, and devices to raise and
lower, to throw in and out of gear, in
fact, to do any and every imaginable
thing that is not necessary to be done
in picking cotton. WAITED favorable
opportunity to try it, and took it to the
back end of the plantation where no
one would see the initiative effort of
this wonderful machine. 1t was in
tended to pick two rows at once, with
the mule walking between them. / felt
quite important as l mounted the seat,
which rose up high in front, and drove
out to the field. Then l arranged every-
thing carefully, oiled every bearing and
journal, and with much confidence /
threw it in gear and started, and then
there was time.
1t is probable that there have been
machines that have made more noise,
but they were more than one-mule
power; it picked everything within
reach; tore the cotton up by the roots;
gathered stalks bolls, leaves, trash of
every kind, and the least irregularitv
in the ground it gathered up a shovel
full of dirt or stones. Finally 1 arrived
at the other end with a load of trash fit
only for bonfire. l was pretty well
satisfied that it left nothing to be de-
sired" but log heap to put it on to
burn it up. Still unloaded the trash:
turned around and got ready for an
other trial. had not gone far when
something slipped out of gear, and the
stalks, trash and dirt it gathered. in
stead of going in the hopper, were flung
into the air in every direction; no hur-
'ricane could have cleaned up the ground
better or made more fuss doing it.
tJust then one of the revolving
tspindles caught the long hairs in the
end of the mules tail; it at once
abandoned the attempt to pick cotton
and went to picking the mule; here is
where it made great mistake for the
mule was in the habit of doing his
own picking, and naturally resented
such an attempt on SO short an ac-
quaintance. l dropped the lines to
get his tail loose, and the mule started
across the field at right angles to the
way he had been going, at gate that
must be characterized as terrific. The
machine kept on picking and when il
had cleaned up the tail began on the
hind quarters. Striking some obstruc.
tion it bounced in the air and threw me
ten feet away. The pains and bruises
of that fall have disappeared for Il