The Lexington advertiser. [volume] (Lexington, Miss.) 1904-1985, 1950-08-31

HAZEL
EYES
by Hazel Brannon Smith

A Holmes county man, III. HI.
Peterman, 38, has invented a me-
chanical hoe that could, and pos
sibly will revolutionize cotton
growing.
Peterman, a resident of Tchula
where he is in the anhydrous am
monia business, has secured a pa
tent on a mechanical wonder
which a cotton farmer can take
and make a crop" 1t will elimi-
nate the use Of a cultivator, a
tanner and the large tractor.
The new machine has certainly
made a crop on a 16-acre plot this
year at the Bee Lake plantation
of w. M. Thompson, one of
Holmes county's largest planters.
This entire plot has been chop
ped and cultivated by Peterman's
hoe attached to a tractor. Shown
elsewhere ION this page is the
field of cotton which has never
seen a cotton chopper - it was
gone over entirely with the me-
chanical hoe and you can see for
yourself how clean it is. The hoe
will eliminate rs per cent of the
manual labor for chopping cot
ton after the planter leaves the
field and the land has been brok-
en- and planted.
After the accompanying picture
was taken one hoe hand worked a
little over three days on this field
going over the plot only I'M time.
All a man will need with Peter
mans hoe is a small tractor.
Peterman has been working on
his remarkable hoe for more than
five years. The idea came to him
first when he was working as
manager on Omega plantation
owned by j. E. Cunningham.
Mr.. Peterman wanted to figure
out a machine that could work
all types of soil. Some of the soil
he worked was good sandy and
light sandy loan and some was
heavy buckshot land. He needed
a machine that would be at home
on all three. Thus his experiments
began. He has spent a lot of time
and money on it the past five
years but feels now that this eff
fort will shortly begin to pay off.
BY l949 the mechanical hoe was
developed enough to make a test
crop with it on Sonny Meek's
farm near Tchula, using about 20
acres. Peterman knew his ma
chine was practical = he made q
good, clean crop. Only minor
changes have been made since
that time.
This year he moved his expert
ments to the Thompson plantation
where the 16-acre test field has
been declared 100 per cent sue
cessful by a large number OF
planters who have seen it.
As one prominent Deltan said:
"You can take it and make a crop
with it." He is reported to have
ordered eight mechanical hoes to
use on his extensive land holdings
when the hoes go into produc-
ton.
The First Peterman hoe was
manufactured by Peterman Bros,
Machine Shop in Yazoo City un-
der the supervision of its origin
ator.
Not everyone is happy about
the invention.
One of the negroes on the
Thompson place said to the n
ventor: Mr.. Peterman, you done
made yoself a niger. You're lus1
fightin us niggers."
But Peterman himself says his
invention should help to bring
about a higher standard of living
in the Delta where fully % per
cent of the land isn't doing any
one any good. Every tenant fam
ily. he said, is living on only IL
to is acres of land when it should
be working at least so acres.
The people in the hills should
grow corn and cattle and leave
the growing of cotton to the Del
ia anyway, according to Peter
man, where it can be grown
cheaper.
1--WE are the LATEST nation in the
world" he said, here we are IN
the garden spot of the universe
and we are not doing much about
it.
sHow can we expect to have a
high standard of living wher Is
families try to get a living out OF
725 acres of even good Delta
land?", he asked.
A man and his wife can work
SO acres of Delta cotton land n
make rs bales of cotton with the
Peterman mechanical hoe with
less work than it now takes toI
them to work is acres.
This claim by Peterman is sup
ported substantially by all those
who have watched the develop
ment of this latest contribution
to scientific cotton farming with
a great deal of interest.
Fall time is subscription paying
time.
--I.-A nllAxxp