MECHANIZING THE COTTON HARVEST — STREET 425 



In addition to his financial difficulties, John Rust had reached the 

 dispiriting conclusion that his machine as it then existed lacked 

 sufficient durability for general sale. Working models, while they 

 would pick cotton when kept in continuous repair, tended to break 

 down in the field when critical parts became worn. Under the en- 

 couragement of his wife, and with the requirements of mass production 

 in view, he sat down to redesign the entire machine from the drafting 

 board. 



THE INTRODUCTION OF THE COMMERCIAL PICKER 



It was at about this time that the long efforts of the International 

 Harvester Co. to develop a commercially satisfactory picker came to 

 fruition. Under the direction of A. W. Scarratt and C. R. Hagen 

 the machine was radically redesigned to be mounted on a powerful 

 high-clearance tractor with higher picking units to accommodate rank 

 irrigated cotton. The tractor itself was operated backward to per- 

 mit the picking units to contact the plant before other parts of the 

 machine could knock the cotton from the bolls. The machine in- 

 corporated 600 tapered, slightly barbed spindles, and had a moisten- 

 ing device to aid in picking and doffing. 



The enormous departure of labor from southern farms during the 

 war years led to increasing reports of labor shortages and for the first 

 time opened the way for serious consideration of labor-saving ma- 

 chinery in the cotton region. To meet the emergency, Fowler McCor- 

 mick, president of the International Harvester Co., announced in 1942 

 that his company regarded its cotton picker as practicable for use and 

 offered to begin production if materials allocations could be made. 

 Wartime priorities rendered this temporarily impossible, but the an- 

 nouncement spurred other manufacturers to get into the race to pro- 

 duce the first commercial cotton picker. 21 



Deere and Co. acquired the Berry patents at this time, and the 

 Allis- Chalmers Manufacturing Co. negotiated an agreement with 

 John Rust to construct machines incorporating his new designs on a 

 nonexclusive basis. In the confused postwar adjustment period, how- 

 ever, none of the companies was able to get into quantity production. 

 There was still considerable doubt that cotton growers were ready to 

 accept complicated, expensive machines to harvest their crop when 

 labor was drifting back to the farms. It was increasingly clear that 

 an important secondary bottleneck — the hand labor needed for weed- 



21 Cotton harvester: International Harvester's machine, Newsweek, vol. 20, 

 p. 68, December 7, 1942 ; Six-bale picker, Business Week, No. 743, pp. 69-70, 72, 

 November 27, 1943 ; Race for pickers, Business Week, No. 748, pp. 61-62, January 

 1, 1944. 



