Show Machinery Is Revamping Farming in Cotton Belt Nearly a million tractors today are in action on farms in the 18 cotton producing states saving time and labor in in nearly every phase of ot cotton production The invasion of machinery into the South's white cotton fields is elim eliminating mating the breaking back-breaking task ol oj producing the cotton crop Mans Man's mechanical helpers achieve in a few tew hours what formerly took d days Ys of at costly Ferman labor labors For example the flame cultivator attached attached at at- to a tractor removes grass and weeds from the field at one one- tenth the former ormer costAn cost An experiment in the coastal plains area of Nor North the Carolina a r a I t n a showed that while man hours are required to produce an acre ol of cotton by the old mule man methods meth meth- use of two-row two tractor equipment equip ment mechanical choppers flame fiame cultivators and machine pickers cuts the man-hour man requirements to 19 7 per a acre ere Machines capable of harvesting a bale of cotton in slightly more than an hour are arc now a reality i Ins n s t ea d of ot a remote possibility While the a average v e era r a g e picker hand gathers about 15 pounds of seed cotton an hour a single mechanical picker in the same field harvests harvest about 1500 pounds in 2 hours 20 minutes Thus the mechanical harvester accomplishes the work of 40 to 50 human pickers |