30 STUDIES OF OCCUPATIONS IN AGRICULTURE 



14. THE COTTON PICKER 



Cotton is the most valuable fabric material used by man. It 

 serves for clothing for over one-half of the human race and for 

 numberless other purposes. The United States produces about 

 two-thirds of the cotton crop of the world and exports over one- 

 half of this quantity. It is our leading agricultural product and 

 article of export. The Southern States comprise our great cotton 

 region. It is grown also in Brazil, Egypt, and India. 



Gathering the cotton must be done by hand, as no suitable ma- 

 chinery has yet been devised for that purpose; thus picking is the 

 main activity and problem of cotton farming. The industry must 

 be carried on in warm or temperate climates, which are very ex- 

 hausting to the white races, and in this country it has long been 

 associated with negro labor. Through the last one or two months 

 of the season the cotton picker goes into the field and gathers the 

 ripe bolls from the growing plants. He walks along row by row, 

 carrying a large basket to hold the loose cotton. It is later sorted 

 carefully into grades and baled for the market. The picker must 

 help in general farm work on the cotton crop or on other crops. 



15. THE MILKMAN 



The milkman renders an important service in delivering milk and 

 cream fresh to the homes of people in towns and cities. As a dairy 

 farm employee he may have to help in milking and caring for the 

 dairy when not out with the milk team or automobile truck. As 

 the employee of a milk company in a large community he may 

 have to attend to milk delivery only. He may sometimes have to 

 collect money from customers. 



The work is not heavy, but requires great activity in jumping 

 off and on wagons or motor trucks and hurrying from door to door 

 in the case of long milk routes and in climbing stairways. It calls 

 for early hours of delivery in large towns and cities, often running 

 from one or two o'clock in the morning to nine or ten or later in the 

 forenoon. The work must be done day by day without regard to 

 weather. If the milkman goes out alone, as is more often the case, 

 he must drive his team or truck and deliver milk at the doors of 

 customers as well. Sometimes a second man or boy goes along as 

 a helper, to do most of the actual delivery. On the other hand the 



