COTTON 
195 
to gather cotton from the lower bolls. The lugging 
of the load as picked is inconsiderable, since large 
baskets are kept at the ends of the rows into which 
the pickers empty their sacks as often as they wish. 
Cotton is picked largely by colored labor; and 
with the negro's careless, "happy-go-lucky" na- 
ture, some loss is but a natural result. This loss 
principally comes from cotton falling out; from its 
being soiled by dirt; and from small locks being 
left in the bolls. 
The quantity that each picker will gather in a 
day naturally varies, since people of both sexes and 
all ages do this work. Some hands gather less 
than 100 pounds a day, while others, where condi- 
tions are favorable, gather as much as 300 to 350 
as their day's work. 
HOW LARGE A CROP CAN OUR PICKERS GATHER ? 
The picking season extends through a period of 
from 90 to 100 days. This is an important advan- 
tage in cotton production. With wheat, a few 
days only may be devoted to the harvest, and if 
the harvest period is extended, the loss will be 
great. With our hay crops, with corn, with tobac- 
co, the same thing is true: inevitable loss if the 
harvest work is not promptly done and done within 
narrow limits indeed. 
But with cotton it is different. Some loss, of 
course, follows, should picking be unreasonably 
postponed. Some of the cotton may be beaten into 
the ground by rains and the rest may be injured 
slightly in quality; still the work may be long de- 
layed without very serious damage. We have 
known crops in which the picking was not quite 
completed until the following spring, when the 
