The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1936-09-01
By BRooS SMITKH
United Press Staff Correspondent

STONEVILLE. Miss, Sept. 1.
(UP).-A mechanical cotton pick
err, an invention destined to evolve
as great social and economical
changes in the agricultural south
as those wrought by the reaper
and the cotton gin, was demon
strated for the first time publicly
yesterday with opinions differing
as to it's practicability and useful
ness.
A highly critical audience of
800 farmers, ginners, government
farm agents and newspapermen
agreed on two points favorable to
the machine:
First, 1t really picks cotton in
impressive quantities with a high
rate of speed.
Second, 1t does not damage the
plants. After the plants passed
through the metal trough the
leaves, stalk and unopened bolls
remained intact, with only bare
ly perceptible bend forward.
At the same time, observers
agreed the machine had two i'm
portant faults. One was the
amount of cotton-vnriously esti-
mated at from five to 80 per cent
left struggling on the stalks,
and second, the amount of green
leaf and foreign matter picked
up.
E. C. Westbrook, cotton spe-
cialist of the agricultural extern
sion service, told the United Press
he was thoroughly impressed with
the machine and believed it could
be made practical in the future,
but did not think it was ready for
the fields now.
Extensive experiments, especial
ly to determine if the foreign mat.
ter can be successfully cleaned
out from the cotton fiber, will be
necessary, Westbrook said, before
the machine will be ready for
widespread use.
The speed with which the picker
whirled down the rows was
miraculous compared to that of
hand picking. Drawn by tractor,
it sped down the rows at more
than three miles an hour. In less
than four minutes, before hand
picker could really get started, it
had reached the end of a row
nearly 1000 feet long.
Durability of the machine is
yet to be determined and it will
remain at the delta experiment
station here for exhaustive tests.
Yesterday at least, it ran smooth
ly and without any apparent trou-
BILE.
The actual operation of the ma
chine centers around smooth,
moistened spindle. There are
1914 of these spindles, arranged
in close vertical rows of Is each,
on a continuous revolving belt.
The spindles are moistened so
that the cotton will cling to them
as they whirl about the plant. At
the rear the spindles stop whirling
and thus the cotton is stripped off
and blown up through an angular
pipe, swhere it is fluffed and drop
ped into a receiving bag.
Mack Rust, co-inventor of the
picker with his brother, John
Rust, said he was satisfied fully
with the demonstration, but pre-
dicted it would do better under
normal conditions. ~
"The higher the normal yield.
the higher will be its efficiency"
Rust said. "Where higher yield,
slows down the hand picker be-
cause he has more bolls per plant
to pick, the machines go on at the
same pace and get more cotton"
A careful check of the number
of hollis picked on individual
plants selected at random seemed
to show the machine had an eff
cheney in picking the bolls of from
SO to Is per cent.
On. one plant it got seven out
of 10 .bolls, on another eight out
Of IL, and on another IS out of