The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-11-28
CONDUCTED BY PROP. ,. F. nrGeAK. (

I Lct us sec h1w in .his particular test itfis machine answered the above re- ouirements. To decide on these ques-
 tions. one must have a clear idea Of the Iccnditions under which this test was made, which were IS follows:
 u.)-Cot;on Plants: Entirely dead, nearly all leaves dropped, picked once stt.ore, and now averaging only about three and a half open bolls per plant. | The plants were small. about twenty | or twenty-two inches high, in four-foot l rows, thick in the drill. poorly chopped, | SD that frequently there were two plants together.
 The variety is .Peterkin. which has very small bolls. which in this case contained | large percentage of imma- ture frosted bolls only partially opened. Soil--A sandy or sandy loam soil, quite dry. constituted this field and in | this the machine travelled easily. In places crab or crowfoot grass was thfckly entangled with the open cotton, but this condition did not prevent sat- isfactory work. though increasing the | amount of trash.
 To test thoroughness of work sam l ples were taken of all the seed cotton left unpicked or on ground on defin-
 te number of plants. This was done both where the machine had operated. and. for comparison, where the usual | hand picking had been done. Until | .he samples are weighed no accurate
 1ata on this point can be given. The | estimates of the several farmers whose opinion I asked placed the unpicked or
 dropped locks at 10 per cent. or less. I estimated the amount of trash as
 perhaps double that left by a careful | icker. but one farmer stated that he | ,ad had hands. to include as much l rash. Enough burrs are contained in l he seed cotton to doubtless require
 han cotton thus power picked be run
 trough huller attachment at the gin. l -ith which some gins are provided l As to wearing qualities it is too ear-
 ly to judge. but it would not be unrea-
 sonable to expect machinery as sim
 ole as this and travelling as slowly to
 wear as we'll as a self feeder, except
 possibly certain Inexpensive renewa-
 ole parts The weight of the machine
 except for the engine and wheels, is
 slight. I have no data as to probable
 price but think that the machine ex-
 elusive of the engine can be built for
 price somewhere between the cost
 Of moving machine and that of a
 corn harvester. The cost of a four
 horse power gasoline engine can be
 iscertained from dealers, but speaking
 from memory. I would place the en-
 zine at s1oo to s12s.
 As to the cost of operation this is
 summed up in the statement that four
 boys or women. seated. can do the plcklng. and one man can guide the
 machine For such slow travel, not
 over about two miles per day, the
 consumption of gasoline for a four horse power engine need be but slight. | Any intelligent farmer, who can oper- If-ht ted as to the workings of a gasoline engine. can I think operate the picker. As to quantity of seed cotton picked, my data up to this date of writing is only fragmentary. no weighing of the seed cotton being made on account of the unfavorable conditions presented by small. poor cotton and by the amount knocked out in advance of the | picker by the crowd witnessing its op- eration. A weighing Is promised at | an early date. Meantime the follow ing data can be used by any farmers
 who wish to figure on xSe actual or possible work of this machine.
 Measurements showed that the ma- chine moved almost exactly 333 yards per hour including time lost interven- ing. As 1t picked one entire row un- | der the machine and two half rows.
 equal to two entire rows, which in
 this case were each our feet wide.
 Hence the area covered in one hour
 was 1900 times eight feet or 5000
 square feet, or nearly one-fifth of an
 acre. This would nearly equal two
 acres in day of ten hours It is only
 fair to add that in this test the ma chine worked without the set of cogs
 that enables the operator to vary the
 speed of the machine where cotton Is
 thin. Tn turning. etc Making some
 allowance for this 1t would seem DOS
 sible for the machine to. cover three
 acres in day and possibly more.
 l The cogs alluded to mad been lost in shipment and could not be replaced
 at once. It is also claimed that the
 boys guiding the picking arms are
 inexperienced and that as they in- crease in skill it will be possible to