Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-03-11
PICKING THE COTTON
Experiments That Have Been
Made With Machines.
SOUTH IN NEED OF LABOR
Importance of a Mechanical Device
Appreciated.
CULTIVATION IS RESTRICTED
Impossible to Plant All the Land
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. Favored by
Agricultural Departments Policy.
CULTIVATION Is RESTRICTED
BY WILLIAM z CIrRTIS


BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS
Written for The Star and the Chicago Record
Herald
Last spring, in a letter from Memphis
described cotton picker which had re-
Gently been invented by G. A. Lowry a
Boston man. and was being experimental
with on the plantations in that vicinity. 1t
was regarded matter of extreme impor
lance The scarcity of labor in the south
is very serious problem The development
of the agricultural industries has been more
rapid than the increase ~ population, and
various attempts have been made to intro
duce Mexicans, Italians and other foreign
labor to take the place of negroes, who are
attracted to the towns and cities by social
excitement and better wages. Last year it
is estimated that per cent of the cotton
crop in the Mississippi valley was lost be-
cause the planters could not find people to
pick it, and If the crop had not been SO
large it would have been severe loss. In
ordinary years it would have been the diff
ference between success and failure so that
the labor factor is becoming more and more
vital. The Importance of a mechanical de-
vice for gathering cotton can be appreci-
ated when it is known that the labor en-
annual outlay of more than fifty million
dollars. This sum does not include the
wages of the ordinary plantation hands
VINO are employed in planting the crop and
cuItlVatng the fields, but IS the extra cost
of picking the cotton. And labor is so
scarce that in several sections of the south
the planters are compelled to pay two and
even three times the usual wages to secure
enough hands.
Effect of Scarcity of Labor.
The scarcity of labor is so great that it
would be impossible to extend the cultiva-
ton of the staple in the south. The area
planted to cotton might otherwise be
doubled. In Texas there are at least 90
100000 acres available, which would yield
fully 100000 bales per year. instead of the
3.Ota,0C0 bales that are now annually re-
ported. In Mississippi, Alabama Arkansas
and other states the area planted to cot
ton might be doubled and the total annual
crop of the United States might be in
creased TO 20,000000 bales If labor were
available. The deliberate tendency of late
years, as Is well known, has been to keep
down the crop on account of low prices.
The principal object of the Cotton Growers
Association has been to persuade the farm
ers not to plant so much cotton. 1t has
asked them to sign pledges and make aft.
davits to limit the area for the purpose of
increasing prices. but this condition is
only temporary. The population of the
world Is using more and more cotton every
day and the manufacturers will have to
come to the United States for their raw
material, which we cannot supply unless we
find more labor or invent some machinery
by which the productive capacity of human
hands may be multiplied,
The inventive genius of America has for
years been trying to devise some machinery
TO pick cotton in the fields but until now
every device has been a failure, chiefly be-
cause the inventor has not been able to
endow his machine with sufficient intelH-
gence and Judgment to detect the differ
ence between ripe and unfipe cotton. Cot
ton bolis do not all ripen at the same time.
The fields are usually picked over three
times, and sometimes four, with intervals
of two or three weeks, as the crop ripenS
and mechanical picker must have the in
telligence to select the ripe bolls and leave
the green ones. This remarka bic faculty IS
alleged to have been conferred upon three
different machines at least, which are now
under observation by agents of the Depart
ment of Agriculture and representatives OF
planters associations.
The Machines Described.
One of the machines is made by John F.
Appleby the inventor of the Irvine binder
1t weighs about 1900 pounds, is drawn by
two horses and offers to do the work OF
twenty ordinary field hands, which. II true,
will be a tremendous advantage and save
at least IS bale 10 per cent of the
value Of the cotton crop of the south. The
machine is mounted upon two wheels with
broad tires, and the axle Is wide enough
to allow 1t to pass over two rows of plants
Attached to the framework are rods with
hooks or pickers, which somehow or other
automatically strip the bolls of ripe cotton
and leave the unripe fiber to mature The
wire fingers drop the cotton into a basket
at the rear of the machine, and when the
basket is full bell rings automatically to
warn the driver, who stops his horses sets
TIE full basket down In the flTrow and
substitutes an empty ore.
The othe" machine is in MANY respects
similar, al; hough II is drawn by a motor
instead Of horses. 1t is mounted on light
steel framework, supported by wheels kav-
ing broad tires like q traction engine so
that they will not sink into the soft earth
as they move through the field Attached
TO the framework are a series of endless
belts and fastened to the surface of the
belts are curved hooks The wheels reyolye
around pulleys driven by the engine which
moves the cotton picked along the field
Each belt is placed in d light wooden cas-
ing which Is open at the outer end. These
picker arms, as they are termed are at
tached to the machine by movable joint,
SO mat hoy can move them up or down
or IN any other direction. When the cot
ton is to be picked the operator merely
guides the outer end of the moving belt
to the boil which holds the fiber and the
teeth pun 1t out, the belt carrying Ii to the
end OF the arm connected with the ma
chine. Here fans. revolved by machinery
blow the cotton through light metal tubes
49, pos" "AaCu dfe suspended over the
top OF the machine. AS the bags will hold
several hundred pounds. a considerable sec
ton or a field can be harvested before 1t is
necessary to empty them
This cotton picker is so simple in It's
construction that six-horse- power engine
or light automobile can be used not only
TO move 1t over the field, but to drive the
picking belts and do all the other work
A man or boy can control the engine, and
the only ether hands needed are boys to
guide the ticking arms
1t 10 elaine ed that this machine can take
from 900 to 5000 pounds of cotton In a
day of ten hours. which is equivalent to the
work of twenty average field hands, and IT
Is possible to increase its capacity by max
ing 1t wide enough to cover five or six rows
Instead of three rows as at present
While neither of the three machines can
be expected to be perfect they are certain
ly a most encoura ring fmnrx,yeynant ffnon