22 COTTON 



through about three months, October being the most 

 important. Sometimes, however, picking can be 

 continued until the beginning of January, if the 

 ripening of the capsules has not been checked by the 

 cold. If the harvesting is postponed too long, there 

 is a danger that some of the cotton may be beaten to 

 the ground by rain and become discoloured. The 

 pickers carry a sack suspended from the shoulder 

 and open at the mouth, into which the seed-cotton is 

 placed as it is withdrawn from the bolls, the outer 

 case or husk of the capsule being usually left on the 

 plant. The work is done by coloured people of both 

 sexes and all ages, and the quantity that each person 

 gathers in a day naturally varies a good deal, some 

 picking less than ioo,lb. a day, whilst others collect 

 as much as from 300 to 350 Ib. It is necessary that 

 the cotton should be picked carefully, so as to exclude 

 fragments of capsules or leaves ; otherwise the 

 product will be " leafy " and its value consequently 

 diminished. 



Owing to the great expense involved in this method 

 of picking by hand, efforts have been made to devise 

 a machine which would pick the cotton automatically. 

 Several such machines have already been invented, 

 and two of the most recent forms are briefly des- 

 cribed below. 



The Crawford-Elliot cotton-picker consists essenti- 

 ally of a double row of bristle brushes, i\ inches in 

 diameter and 14 inches long. These brushes are 

 caused to revolve rapidly, and are introduced among 

 the plants and drawn up vertically. The ripe cotton 

 adheres to the brushes, which travel to a receptacle 

 in which the cotton is stripped off, and the operation 

 is repeated. It is claimed that this machine will 

 harvest the cotton at one-fourth of the cost of hand- 

 labour. 



The Price-Campbell cotton-picker operates by 

 means of series of spindles, which are either corrugated 

 or bear suitable projections. These spindles are 

 carried in appropriate bearings, fitted into vertical 

 cylinders, a number of which are arranged on an 

 endless band on each side of the machine. The 



