COTTON 197 



only a little less than now, one can readily see what 

 a factor in cotton production is this one item of 

 gathering the crop. For wheat we may reckon 

 one dollar as an average price. What would you 

 think of 20 cents per bushel for labor in the har- 

 vest field? With cotton, too, it costs practically 

 the same for picking whether the price is six, eight 

 or ten cents per pound. Surely it is selling for 

 little enough now. We read of the enormous value 

 of the 1905 cotton crop, but it is well to remember 

 that it cost the cotton farmer about seventy-five 

 million dollars to gather it after the crop was grown. 



WEIGHING 



As the pickers fill their sacks they return to some 

 convenient place where the sacks are emptied, and 

 then back again they go to picking again, and thus 

 they work for the greater part of the day. The 

 cotton is emptied into baskets or put into piles on 

 blankets or cloths of some sort. At night, or when 

 the field is picked over, the owner weighs the picked 

 cotton and either pays or credits each picker for 

 the quantity gathered. Many of these piles are 

 made; as many as there are individual families or 

 pickers. It is the only way to determine the 

 amount earned, which is then easily calculated. 

 This cotton is called seed cotton, and after weigh- 

 ing, it is hauled to the barn, "cotton house," or 

 other place of storage. 



THE COTTON PICKER 



As has already been indicated, the draft on cot- 

 ton profits is greatest for picking. We gather 



