fctttTlVATtoN 0£ COtTOKi— m. f. 
173 
Will extract the contents, the bowl being open, and 
the bottom of the locks not gummy to adhere. 
There is a vast difference in hands—not the quick¬ 
est making the best pickers^a steady, clocklike 
motion) with some quickness, is necessary to gather 
fast. A neighbor of mine, when a young man, 
some ten years since, gathered 400 lbs., which was 
at that time the best I had known ; this has been 
beaten since, by aiding the hand in emptying his 
sacks, and almost feeding and watering him while 
at wofk. ^ 
I weigh twice a day, at noon, and again at 
night. I never allow picking after dark, unless 
the hands take a very industrious fit, or run 
races; they are then indulged. Not unfrequently 
is this the case, although the same hands have 
picked together for years. They will try to out¬ 
strip each other, as is often seen with the horse, 
and evince as much anxiety to hear the weights, 
and appear as chop-fallen at being beaten, as if it 
were the first they had ever received ; trying again 
the next day with no better success, and even en* 
deavoring to steal out into the field before their 
competitor is aware of it. 
After weighing, if the weather be fair, the cot¬ 
ton is consigned to the scaffold, to the care of those 
who pick out what trash and rotten parts are left. 
After being dried as said in the last No., it is taken 
into the upper part of the house, and placed over 
the gin-stand, ready to be turned into the hopper 
that leads from this place to the gin-stand. My 
gin-house is 32 by 62, framed, with two floors. 
Below the first floor is the running-gear, where the 
horses work; in the second story we weigh ; on a 
level is the shed for sunning, fronting the south, in 
which is the gin-stand at one end; at the other 
the press. In the garret is carried the seed; cot¬ 
ton over the gin-stand, and the ginned cotton over 
the press. 
I never pick cotton if wet with rain, but attend 
to other matters. When the weather is good, I 
strive to keep every one busy that can gather any¬ 
thing like even a half-hand’s work. All go out 
after daylight, but not long, I assure you; when, 
1 can not say, as my manager has that part to at¬ 
tend to, for I never could think it agreeable to be 
out so early. 
When I commence ginning, there is a small boy 
to drive each team, there being four horses, or 
mules, to work in pairs; one hand at the gin-stand, 
who is kept pretty busy in putting the seed-cotton 
on to the saws ; another hand is required to push 
the cotton back from the flue of the gin-stand, rake 
cotton into the hopper, and clear out seed and 
motes after the gin drops them. With my gin- 
stand, I have myself ginned 4 bales per day, and 
averaged over 3 bales for a week together; but it 
requires constant attention. Though the labor is 
light, yet it requires a good hand to perform it. 
There is much loss-work in this business, fre¬ 
quently a part of the saws are running through 
seed, while others are almost choked; again, the 
roll is not full; again too full. In this way my 
ginner, though an excellent servant, and named 
after Cyrus of yore, is sometimes busy ginning out 
2 bales, or even less per day, while I, though 
naturally lazy, and not disposed to thwart nature 
in that prerogative* never gin under 3 bales. The 
plan is to keep the team steady* and shake the 
cotton regularly over the roll, so as to keep the 
roll regularly full. I call the roll the cotton in the 
gin-stand that is turned over and over by the mo- . 
tion of the saws, from Which the saws pull off the 
article known in commerce as cotton. 
The next and last thing is baling , which I do by 
cutting off several pieces from a bolt of bagging* 
about 4 feet 6 to 8 inches long, the length of the bale 
being 4 feet 6 inches; I then cut out the bed-cloth, 
so as to have the heading of each end on it, without 
wasting, which is done by splitting the first end 
long enough for head, say 2 feet 9 inches to 3 feet, 
and cut oft' one piece ; then measure the length of 
the bale* cut half across, and split the same distance 
as their end, and cut one end from the bolt (leav¬ 
ing one half attached to the bolt), so as to have 
both heads on the same side of the cloth thus. 
. I then split in two one 
' IG * 4 of the first-named pieces, 
and sew on to the side 
from a to 1) * this gives the 
bed-cloth; the two pie- 
1 . :i ces each side of the long 
middle piece, when cotton is pressed down, serve 
as half the sides of the bale; the first-named cloth 
being placed on top of the cotton before pressing, 
and turned down, is met by these half sides, and 
when sewn up, covers the bale; the bed-cloth is 
lain smooth and even on the bed-block, and the 
doors of the press fastened over it, when the press is 
full; one of the first cloths cut, called top-cloth, is 
stretched under follower and on cotton. My press 
is a single-screw, inside press; the horse walking 
adjoining to the walk of the teams, working the 
running-gear of the gin-stand. The bale is pressed 
above them on the first floor, and the cotton is put 
in the press on the upper floor. Four hands, or 
rather three hands and a youngster do the pressing; 
two getting in the box and tramping the cotton 
down, while the youngster throws in the cotton, 
and the fourth sews in the head, and prepares a 
bed-cloth. We press 9 to 10 bales a day, averaging 
generally 425 lbs., preferring about that weight to 
any other. 
After running the press down, one hand is em¬ 
ployed in tying, while the two others wind up the 
rope on a windlass, to make it tight round the 
bale, having grooves in the bed-block and follower 
large enough for rope to pass through easily; one 
hand has a long needle, three feet long, either of 
white oak or iron wire, through the eye of which 
is passed a piece of twine, the ends tied together; 
a loop is formed, the rope passed through and 
made fast; the needle is then passed through the 
upper groove by one hand, another pulls through 
the opposite side, he then returns it below; the 
hand that ties pulls through, releases the twine, 
makes a knot in the end of the rope, passes it over 
the rope attached to the coil, and makes a single 
knot; the long end then is passed over a pin in 
the shaft to which the windlass is attached, then 
this is turned over and over until tight, the rope cut, 
and passed under the rope on the bale, sometimes 
tied, as if knitting a line on to a fishing-hook, and 
so on until the ropes are all tied. Mine are eight 
