COTTON CULTURE. 39 



of the field and back, they may gather twenty-five pounds 

 in the outward tiip. Then coming back to the baskets, 

 they will gather twenty-five more. It is easy to see that 

 the last half of the load will be collected with very much 

 more fatigue and inconvenience than the first half; for, in 

 addition to the labor of picking, the laborer has to carry 

 on his homeward trip twenty-five pounds weight which is 

 continually increasing until it becomes fifty before he is 

 relieved of it. Picking, though not heavy work, is tire- 

 some, and in the last degree monotonous, so that regard 

 for the comfort of the laborer, as well as desire to advance 

 the work, will suggest that the planter make every possible 

 arrangement to relieve and lighten the task, and enable 

 the picker to take his work at the very best advantage. 



Let the field be divided up by lanes and -roads in such 

 a way that the picker will never carry much weight in his 

 bag. The bags are emptied into the basket as soon as 

 filled, and it is desirable that the hands should keep along 

 together so as to come out about the same time. In fact, 

 it is policy to let the fast pickers work some on the rows 

 of the young and slow pickers. This gives encouragement, 

 keeps the gang of laborers together, and stimulates the 

 slower ones to keep up. Nothing is more disheartening 

 to a young or feeble picker, than to find himself two or 

 three hundred yards in the rear of the main force, tired, 

 with a heavy bag, all the time painfully conscious of his 

 inferiority to the rest, and perhaps too frequently reminded 

 of it by harsh and discouraging words. Though too much 

 talking and singing must interfere with labor, it is earn- 

 estly recommended to every cotton grower to take care to 

 secure cheerfulness if not hilarity in the field. 



Remember that it is a very severe strain upon the pa- 

 tience and spirits of any one, to be urged to rapid labor of 

 precisely the same description, day after day, week after 

 week, month after month. Humanity, to say nothing of 

 self-interest, (and here humanity and self-interest are iden- 



