The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1915-12-23

"ONAO VA0Ak AZ SCCO ~ q POSSn W ~,
self. so the pollen from inferior varie-
ties could not fall upon the silk and
check the upward tendency of the new
variety. BY doing this year after year
his four cared variety was certain.
Remember Davy Crockett" said his
father one day. BE sure you're right.
then 60 ahead"
Hey, Joe." called a countryman one
day. refining up his team, Il want to
get some of that corn for seed. Will
you sell it,"
Yes, sir. after it has been measured
by the committee. Can't touch it until
then"
"All right; l want some. What do
you ask for it?"
1.-Two dollars and a half a bushel for
selected seed"
"Sufferin' Moses. that's mighty steep,
Joe!'
Yes, and it's mighty good corn too.
1t will make three times as much as
you have been getting. with the right
treatment"
"Well, l reckon it's with it. Put me
down for two bushels. and III norate
the news around that you'll sell for
that price,"
The last week in July brought the
first open cotton boil. There were hun.
dreds of others cracking. ready to
burst with the beautiful snow white
mass of fiber.
Joe remembered reading that the alb.
sence Of trash, grit or discolorations in
cotton was worth several dollars a
bale. He recalled how his father and
the other farmers would do wait until
nearly the whole crop had opened l,e-
fore starting the picking. The lowest
limbs of the cotton stalk matured their
fruit first, and often the wind or rain
would caus the cotton to fall to the
ground. to be beaten into the dirt. dis
colored. filled with grit and sticks and
leaves.
Then the picking would go forward
in a rush. The sacks the pickerS car.
ried would be emptied right on the
ground at the ends of the rows and the
cotton scooped up from there with Il
shovel. a pitchfOrk or in armfuls and
thrown into a open wagon bed. Then
some one. often with muddy feet. would
tramp the loose cotton in the wagon.
infiicting more dirt and discolorations.
Joe determined his cutton should be
handled differently. There was an
abandoned negro cabin near the field.
He swept it out twice. then with a
pine top busted it thoroughly. He col
lected all the empty oat. corn and meal
sacks about the place, turned them in
side out and shook them until there
"a no dirt or dust left in them. These
he piled in the cabin ready for use.
He got Mrs. Weston to sew a strip
Of stout bedticking across the mouth
of a fifty pound meal sack so he could
sling it across his shoulders. the open
mouth of the sack at his left side ready
to receive the cotton as he picked it.
Then he waited for more cotton to
open.
He went through the prize acre of.
corn and pulled the fodder off as high
as he could reach. 1t was rather dry by
this time. but he thought a dollar or
two could be made in that way to cut
down the expense of the acre. He got
200 good bundles of fodder, which Mr..
Somerville sold for him at 2 cents a
~bundle-tbat meant 81 clipped from the
expense account.
BY this time enough open bolls gleam-
ed white among the cotton plants to
make it worth while to start picking.
Singing his sack over his shoulder, Joe
began Systematically going down n
row and up another. When he came to
an open boil he grasped it near the
stem with his left hand. then with
thumb and first three fingers of his
right pulled the fluffy cotton from the
f1aring mouth Of the boil.
He had never noticed before how
much a green cotton boil was like a
green hickory nut husk. only larger.
and the boil opened at the outer end
when ripe very similar to a chestnut
burr after the frost had fallen upon it.
When he filled the sack he carried it
was emptied directly into n of the
oat sacks he had provided. and the cot
ton never touched the ground. Each
bit of dead leaf or stem or hull of the
dried boil was picked out. and nothing
marred the whiteness Of his product.
AS each oat sack was filed he tied the
mouth of it with stout Irvine and stow
ed it away in the dry cabin.
In a week he had picked enough to
make a bale. The sacks were loaded
into the wagon. and a n~eighborhood
gin owner was induced to raise steam
and gin the cotton for him.
The cotton vas dumped into a hop
per; then it was conveyed to the gin.
an arrangement of round small saws
with fine teeth. set so closely together
on a revolving shaft that the seed could
not pass between the VS.. \ roller
kept throwing the cotton against the
battery of saws. about five feet long,
and the swiftly revolving saws would
catch the lint growing to each cotton
seed. The result was that the seed
could not pass the saws. but the lint
was yanked off in a jiffy. and the seed
fell into a trough below. Behind the
saws was a brush" which collected
the lint from the sa VS.. and it passed