MECHANIZING THE COTTON HARVEST — STREET 421 



in 1904. The Price-Campbell cotton picker was patented in 1912 and 

 underwent continuous testing and improvement until Campbell's death 

 in 1922. The results, however, were never completely satisfactory. 

 The self-propelled machine was heavy, complicated, and expensive 

 to build. It left too much cotton on the plant or knocked to the 

 ground, in addition to which it injured the unripe bolls. 



Notwithstanding these deficiencies, Campbell had done a valuable 

 piece of work. The heart of his machine was an ingenious cam- 

 actuated mechanism that positioned a battery of revolving barbed 

 spindles in the cotton plant as the machine passed over it, and then 

 removed the lint from the spindles by means of stationary doffers. 

 The Price-Campbell patents were taken over by the International 

 Harvester Co. in 1924, and although further testing and modification 

 required another quarter-century, Campbell's basic ideas contributed 

 importantly to the ultimate success -of the first commercial cotton 

 picker when it appeared in 1948. 



Other inventors who attempted to perfect one version or another 

 of the spindle cotton picker during the first quarter of the century 

 included P. P. Haring of Goliad, Tex. ; B. Johnson of Temple, Tex. ; 

 George R. Meyercord of Chicago ; John F. Appleby (the widely known 

 inventor of the self -knotting grain binder) ; and Hiram N. Berry of 

 Greenville, Miss. 15 All their machines attracted some notice at various 

 times, but none was fully successful. Moreover, each inventor was 

 confronted with the fact that because of the abundance of low-paid 

 farm workers in the South, a mechanical cotton picker would have 

 had to be overwhelmingly efficient to compete successfully with hand 

 labor. 



The longest continuous effort to devise a spindle picker was made 

 by the International Harvester Co., which had evidenced interest in 

 the problem from the time of its formation in 1902. Drawing on the 

 experience of one of its predecessor companies, the Deering Harvester 

 Co., the implement firm spent 40 years in research and an estimated 

 $5,250,000 before it was able to demonstrate in 1942 a spindle picker 

 which it regarded as satisfactory for production. 



Between 1924 and 1930 company engineers designed, built, and 

 tested in the field seven distinct types of machines, beginning with 

 an improved model of the Price-Campbell picker. They also tested 

 literally hundreds of variations in the shape, size, and arrangement 

 of spindles, doffers, and other essential parts. Recognizing the finan- 

 cial limitations of cotton growers, they sought to simplify the pon- 



18 After Hiram N. Berry's death his son, Charles R. Berry, continued to make 

 improvements on his father's self-propelled picker. In 1943 Deere and Co. 

 bought the Berry patents and utilized them for a time in the development 

 of its own spindle picker. 



