Very few people
under the age of "Senior Citizen" have ever picked cotton. The cotton
patch is now harvested by machine, about the same way as grain,
potatoes and other back breaking gatherings. But it wasn't always that
way. Cotton matured in the early Fall, and when it matured, that was
the time to pick it. Cotton was the primary money crop for most small
farmers. There were many things that could happen to keep the cotton
crop small. If it rained at the wrong time and delayed the picking, it
could damage the quality of the cotton. A dry summer could cause the
bolls to be small and the output to be very low. An infestation of
insects could lead to a crop failure. When it was time to pick, the
whole family pitched in along with all the hired help the family could
find. The trouble was that most of the crops were ready at the same
time, so workers that didn't have picking of their own were hard to
find.
We didn't raise cotton. Our money
crop was livestock that we brought to marketable size with the feed
that we grew. We headed maize by hand, pulled corn, bundled and stored
peanuts and harvested wheat, oats and barley. Usually at cotton picking
time I was available to help someone else.
There were two ways of picking
cotton - actually picking the cotton out of the bolls and pulling boll
and all. If the crop was good, the cotton loose and fluffy and easily
removed, then "picking" was the preferred method of removing it. If the
bolls were small and tight and didn't like to give up the lint, then
the boll was pulled off. This method was called "pulling". Most of the
cotton in our area was pulled. When cotton was pulled, it took about
1600 to 1800 pounds (depending on the quality of the crop) to gin a 500
pound bale of marketable cotton. If the cotton were picked, then about
800 to 1500 pounds would make a bale, depending on the ratio of seed to
lint, moisture content and the amount of trash, etc.
When we went to the cotton patch, we
took a "sack" made of heavy cotton ducking. These sacks could be bought
in various lengths or the ducking material could be bought and the home
seamstress could make the family sacks. These were in lengths from
three or four feet to twelve or fifteen feet long and perhaps 16 or 18
inches in diameter. There was a strong strap at the open front end that
went over the neck and rested on the shoulder. The bottom end was, of
course, closed. The kids used the small sacks and the better pickers
used the larger ones. The long sacks were very heavy to drag when they
were about full, but if a smaller sack was used it had to be carried or
drug to the scales.
Cotton scales were simple balance
type devices that were hung from the propped up tongue of the wagon.
The sack was tied to the bottom of the scale and a "P", or small
weight, was moved along the arm until it balanced. The weight was then
read from the figures along the scale beam where the weight caused it
to balance. A large P was used for heavier sacks and a smaller one for
small sacks. The reverse side of the scale beam was calibrated for the
small P. The crop owner usually designated an official weigher. He
weighed all the sacks and kept a record of the amounts each picker
brought in. After weighing the sack and the weight of the sack was
deducted, the cotton was emptied into the wagon. The wagon bed had high
side boards.
In low areas, or areas where the
soil was richer, the cotton tended to grow much taller and produced
much better. This tall cotton was sometimes five or six feet high and
was a nice thicket when fully grown. Since no portable potties were
available, the tall cotton was a welcome retreat for those needing the
facilities. This use of the tall cotton was the originator of the term
that is sometimes still used to indicate something desirable - .....in
tall cotton!".
When the weigher announced that
there was enough cotton in the wagon for a bale, the team was hitched
and the load started on its way to the gin. In those days there were
gins all over the country, and it was usually not more than six or
seven miles to the closest one. If another wagon was not available, the
cotton that was picked was dumped in a big pile and had to be loaded
when the wagon returned. If there wasn't a tree available, the scales
were hung from a tripod, made by tying three long poles together at the
top in a "wigwam" manner. Some farmers used the tripod instead of a
wagon tongue. Either system worked fine, and the cotton picking
continued.
Schools began late in the year so
the kids could help with the cotton picking. The first year I went to
school the opening was about the middle of October. If the picking
wasn't over when school started, the family usually kept them out until
it was finished.
When the picking was over, it wasn't
really over. The bolls that were not mature and had not opened at
picking time later opened and it was profitable to the owner to go over
the field again, picking the scattered bolls. This was called
"stripping". You could not hire anyone to do this because the cotton
was so scattered even a good picker couldn't pick enough in a day at
picker's wages to make it worthwhile. But the owner, who could sell it
for forty or fifty cents a hundred could make several extra dollars.
A bale of cotton, after ginning,
usually sold for about fifty dollars. The buyer cut a big hole in the
bales and inspected the cotton for cleanliness and condition. The gin
would gin the cotton in exchange for the cotton seed, or if the farmer
wanted to keep the seed, the cost for ginning was three to five
dollars. Cotton seed was an excellent feed for milk cows and produced
rich milk with a good flavor. (The taste of raw milk varied with the
diet of the cow. Wild onions, especially, produced an undesirable
taste. Horehound caused the milk to be bitter, etc.) The workers in the
field were paid from ten cents to twenty cents a hundred pounds for
pulling. Picking might pay as much as fifty cents a hundred.
A good cotton picker might pick as
much as six or seven hundred pounds in a day or pull as much as a
thousand. The average picker didn't do that well. About three or four
hundred was average for an average, inexperience picker: a little more
for a puller.
Everyone brought their lunch to the
cotton patch (sometimes, if the field was not too far, the family went
home for dinner). The cotton sack made a soft seat for sandwich
munching and a nice bed for resting before going back to work. For a
bed, the sack was doubled back (full of cotton) and the one resting lay
in the lowered middle. Some folks built a fire and boiled coffee in a
bucket, or a big pot. All of the crew was invited to share. There was a
water bucket in the shade of the wagon with a dipper hanging on the
rim. Everyone drank thirstily from the same dipper and when the bucket
was dry, a kid fetched another. Better equipped groups had one or more
water bags - these bags were made of ducking and the water seeping
through kept the bag cool by evaporation. This was better than the
water bucket.
The cotton was unloaded at the gin
with a large vacuum tube. The tube was pulled down into the wagon and
sucked the cotton directly into the ginning mechanism. Wagons waited in
line to be unloaded. Sometimes, when the crops were heavy, the line was
pretty long. There were sometimes games between those waiting, such as
cards, dominoes, checkers, horseshoe pitching, marbles or tall tale
telling.
As the year 2000 rolls around, not
too many people can remember picking cotton. In a few more years, it
will be a forgotten activity. The same could be said for most of the
farm chores of the early part of the 20th century. Almost everything is
done by machinery now. Instead of walking or riding behind horses or
mules when plowing, and catching all of the heat, flies and dust, the
farmer now sits in an air conditioned cab and listens to his favorite
radio program or tape and guides his power-steered tractor down the
rows.
But I'll bet the farmer still finds
time to do some hard work.
And I'll also bet he finds time to
enjoy it - just like we did.
It is the farmer, whether large or
small, that makes it possible to go to the grocery store and fill your
cart. Without him it would be a hungry world.
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