The Lafayette advertiser. [volume] (Vermilionville [i.e. Lafayette], La.) 1865-19??, 1899-01-28

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experiment.
At first Mr.. Mangum was in
clined to laugh at the idea, out the
more he thought over the matter,
and the more he watched the mon
keys at their various tricks, the
more he became convinced ther e
was something g in it, and the next
day as he left the profe;so at the
Carroll Hotel. he said
well professor, / have been
thinking over your suggestion OF
teaching monkeys to pick cotton
and l am determined to try tn e
thing and see if it will work. They
have been taught to do much more
difficult things than that, and | am
almost sure they can be taught to
pick cotton. We can't rely on the
nigger much longer. and next fall
l am going to buy mo a dozen
monkeys and see what can be
done.
THE next fall, that is in Sept.
OF 1897, Mr. Mangum hunted up
the owner aud trainer of ten mon
keys in New York City. and made
arrangement both to buy the mon
keys and to getthe sevices of their
trainer who understood the busi-
ness. and assured Mr.. Mangum that
it would be the simplest thing inn
aginable to teach the monkeys to
pick cotton. These were placed
upon one of Mr.. Mangum's Miss
issippi plantations about the mid
die of September of that year, and
the training began. The monkeys
belonged to the race known to scien-
ties as Sphagtails Vulgaris, and
the males weighed about 10 lbs.
and the females about 90 pounds
each. Bags were madesf for leach
monkey. which would hold about
twenty-five pounds of seed cotton
and bag over the shoulder of
each. 1t is surprising how rapid
~ the trainer taught the monkeys
to pick the cotton. Baskets to hold
the cotton were placed at the end
of the rows, and one man, over and
above the trainer, was necessary
to take the cotton out of the sacks
and put it in the baskets. The fe-
males proved much better pickers
than the males, for they not only
picked cleaner cotton, but they
would also pick more Of it in day.
In less than a month after the mon
keys were started at the work they
could pick on an average of $50
pounds a day. They picked in
weather in which negroes wouldn't
pick, and picked cleaner cotton.
The cost OF picking was much less,
and in every way they made much
better pickcrs than the average
negro. This first experiment,
although on a small scale. proved
to MIR. Mangum that monkeys
could be used with great success
as cotton pickers, SO in June of IS-
90 he made an order TO-. 900 mon
keys of the same breed, on an ex-
porter of monkeys from Africa
with the understanding tnat most
of them were to be females.
About the first of September Of
this year the new batch of monkeys
arrived, and the services OF the
old trainer were engaged to train
this new lot. but this was not
such an easy matter as was at first
thought. for many of the new mon
keys were still wild. But the trail
ner thoroughly understood his busi-
ness, having served for a long
time under Barnum as trainer of
monkeys. Finally with the aid OF
the ten old monkeys, who were.
Of great assistance, and a great
deal OF punishment and rewarding,
the rev gang were pretty well
trained by the middle OF October.
II have watched the expert
ment with greater interest than |