Fort Mill times. [volume] (Fort Mill, S.C.) 1892-current, 1909-10-28
WILL DO THE WORK
NEW COTTON PICKER SAID TO BE
AN ENTIRE SUCCESS.
Claims That Il Will Pick Thousand
Pounds an Hour Without Injury
to Bolls or Plant.

rounds an Hour Without Injury
to Bolls or Plant.
The practical working of the Price
Campbell cotton picking machine was
demonstrated on the plantation al
Senator John l.. McLaurin, neal
Bennettsville one day last week In
the presence of a large number OF
plante and other citizens, and II
what is claimed for the new ma
chine Is true, ii can be truthfully
asserted that the days of hand picked
cotton Will soon be a thing OF the
past. 1t is asserted that the ma
chine picked cotton at the rate of q
thousand pounds an hour. withou:
injury to the plant or unopened
bolls. About go per cent OF the open
| cotton was obtained at the first pick
ing, and by running the machine over
! the same rows again, 1t got about
80 per cent OF the balance, making
SO per cent. There was a consider
able amount OF trash in the cotton
picked. but many practical farmers
said they had seen more trash IL
| hand-picked cotton,
A hundred-acre fleld of cotton was
bought last summer from Senator
McLaurln by Theodore II. Price OF
| New York for the demonstration OF
| the machine.
No cotton had been pcked in the
field, and the bolls which opened
early in the season had been damag-
ed by dust and smoke in the field
and the foliage had become dry ami
| rotten. SO that the cotton naturally
made poorer appea ance than IL II
had been picked soon after open
| Ing. Some of the cotton was ginned
and submitted to buyers here, who
| classed IL as low middling To strict
low middlinH. They said they had
bought great deal OF cotton this
season which was not as good as that
picked by the machine.
Upon the invitation of Mr.. Price
a number OF Northern capitalists
came down and witnessed private
test Of the machine. They saw q
bale of cotton picked In an hour and
then ginned The party included
V. Ernest Macy. Marshall p Slade
I w. ii. LOTUS, n. +. Carpenter. Geo
| w. Baxter. Rudolph II. Ktssel. George
C. F aser and Elwood Hendrick, ot
New York, Herbert T. Walmsley and
! Herbert L. Walmsley, Jr., of New
| Bedford. Mass; Stephen C. Lowe, r
p. Sheldon, Frederic S. Goodwin, G.
l.. Hathaway. f. w. Perkins AID O
d. Hammond of Boston, S. II. Nc
Ribbon and George p. Gordon o.
| Pittsburg. and Joel Hurt of Atlanta
They were fully convinced that til,
machine Is a success.
The machine is driveA by an auto
mobile engine, and the driver sit
in front and steers the machin,
astrtde row of cotton. IL moves
over a row as fast as man car
walk, picking about ah acre an hour
The projecting moses" run ahea,
OF the machine, on each side of tn,
row, and lift up the limbs that ar,
all gathered up and pressed into
space about foot wide While tn
stalk is thus Held. small steel spin
dies reach thrpugh IT. from bot
sides. reaching every inch of space
On Que side Of each spindle is roN
of small teeth, so short that the
will not catch hold of anything OK
cept the cotton fiber,
These spindles are revolving rap
idly and when lock Of cotton /
touched It Is caught and %rappe
around the spindle. The spindle
then move out of the plant, sto
revolving. and the cotton is take
on by ribs similar to the breast @
gain. II falls on conveyors, whic
empty IL in bags at the rear of tn
machine. A boy sits on the rear c
the machine and packs the cotton /
the bags. The boy would not h
needed If the bags were large enoug
to hold round without packing.
, Very few pieces OF locks are lei
In the burrs. The cotton left
usually in whole bolls or locks. Th
spindles either miss them or els
are already loaded when they com
in contact with them. When
spindle engages a lock, it usual
twists ii all out. Running the ms
chine over row the secoDd i'm
demonstrated the fact that PRACTICAL
all the cotton could be gotten tn
first time by doubling the capacit
OF the machine, which can he don
by lengthening the battery of spiI
dies.
Angus Campbell. OF Pittsburg. til
inventor of the machine, saw I'll
machine work He has been worJ