36 COTTON CULTUKE. 



CHAPTER IV. 



COTTON PICKING. 



Early in August the fortunate and enterprising planter 

 will walk in from a survey of his crop with two or three 

 open bolls in his hand. His harvest is approaching. He 

 plans to have his fodder pulling done in a week, if not al- 

 ready over, and he looks after his sacks and baskets. A 

 yard and a half or two yards of strong Lowell, made into a 

 wide-mouthed sack, and furnished with a broad double 

 strap to go over the neck, is provided for every hand on 

 the place. 



The mouth or opening should be made so as to hang 

 open, convenient for the picker. A cord or rope, as big as 

 the little finger, sewed all around the top on the outside, 

 helps keep the bag open. The length of the strap and 

 depth of the bag should be carefully adjusted to the size 

 and figure of the laborer, for the planter can ill afford to 

 waste the strength, or needlessly multiply the motions of 

 a picker. Each hand should also have his basket. These 

 are made of wide, white oak splits, coarse in texture, not 

 very heavy, and capable of holding about four bushels. 

 It is very well to have each sack and each basket branded 

 or otherwise marked with the name of the laborer, as it 

 prevents confusion, and it is well known that a workman 

 is always better satisfied to feel that he has absolute and 

 certain control of his tools. 



As soon as you can look down between two rows of 

 cotton, and count half a dozen open bolls, start in the 

 pickers. They will get more than it seems likely that 

 they would, and, if active, will probably come out with 

 forty or fifty pounds. From this time on till nearly Christ- 

 mas the one great business on a cotton plantation, to which 

 everything else must yield, and in which every available 

 finger should be employed, is picking. There is no crop 



