The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1908-09-16
after IT is PICKED.
FARMERS LOOSE MILLIONS OF
DOLLORS BY THE
Careless Handling Of Their Cotton
After 1t Is Gathered and Being
Prepared for Market.


Every year cotton farmers worry |
themselves almost into nervous oros-
tratlon over the matters of seed
selection. excess of moisture, drought
firing, army worms. rust, boil wee
VII and dozen other ills to which
the growing plant is subject. But
when the staple has come to maturity
and been harvested (in more or
less careless and wateful manner
what do they do? This is the oues-
uon propounded and answered by
the Savannah News.
Beginning with the picking and
running through to the final market
Ing there is a tremendous amount of
waste, roughly estimated to amount
to NOSE than million dollars per
crop. The clean" picker is the ex-
ception rather than the rule. The
average picker. hustling to get out
the greatest number of pounds in
the shortest space OF time, leaves
many ripe bolls unplucked to take
the weather and drops other open
cotton upon the ground to be trampl-
/ ed and cost. In hauling to the gin
houses much more cotton is lost
through careless handling. In gin
ming modern methods have made the
losses inconsiderable, which is also
true of bailing. But after the fleece
is ba'ed then follow the greatest and
and most ineXcusable losses Of all.
The bailing is not carefully done, in
such manner as to preserve the con-
tents Of the package III the best
possible condition. There is no
standard or uniformity in size Of
press boxes. no standar Of density
! Of compression and no standard rule
for covering that will keep out nlois-
ture and dirt and prevent what may
for convenience be called leakage.
The farmer will watch his growing
crop as carefully as he would a sick
child. and then, after the cotton is
ginned, permit it to be badly baled
and rolled out into the open to take
the sun and rain as they come. H.
is not an uncommon sight to see
hundreds, even thousands, of bales
of cotton parked in the open air
at shipping point, the bales ragged
and unkenpt. and without protection
against water or FIRE: and the same
sort of thing is true on great many
farms. The producer seems to lab
or under the Suppression that his
duty to this crop ends when ne has
got it picked and baled. He will see
he bales get soaked in q heavy rain
without turning a hair or he will
see the bales rolled through mud
puddles without entering a protest.
But il he were to see, a bug in HIS
growing crop he would have nerv-
Gus chill.
Bad balins inficts a tremendous
iloss upon the cotton growers every
year. It is unreasonable 10 suppose
that spinners will pay as much Tor q
bale that is dirty and vet and rotten
on the outside as they will for a bale
that is clean and dry. 1t is against
the very common sense of things
that they should do so, Indian cot
ton nearly always reaches the SPIN
ner in excellent condition. because
great care. is taken in the balIlg ol
| II and the bales re always kept IN
good order When the Indian Daie
| is broken open at the mill there are
tno 10. 90 or 90 pounds TO be thrown
out as unfit for spinning, as-lS very
often the case with American n;!!es.
| Efficient packing OF cotton' ol
course, costs little more than poor
hacking and nero is some expense
o++,obed RI tho erection OF sAedS'
ant these added costs are, III inc
long run. real economies.