OCR Text |
Show Cow Inspires Electric Cotton Picker Tpili: cuttou industry, In which human labor M. has played the important role for the 4,000 or more .years that cotton hai been picked by hand, promises to become revolutionized by tho advent of an electrically operated picker, which has recently been perfected and placed in practical prac-tical operation on a plantation at Little Rock, Ark., in the heart of the northern cotton belt-Thc belt-Thc new electric device makes It possible rcthixj tlir boll i.itn !!., . , , fur a person to gather from 400 to 700 pounds of cotton a day, as compared with TO to 150 by hand. Aud by so doing It piomiscs to solve the greatest great-est problem of the cotton grower, that of being able to harvest all the cotton he plants and to do so during the limited period in the fall beforo the rains and frosts damage the plants and greatly lessen the value of the lint and seed. It now takes 1,600 pounds of hand picked seed cotton to make a 500-pound bale of cotton lint that is, cotton after the seeis and dirt are removed re-moved at the gin. With the electric picker, results re-sults have shown that 1,450 pounds of seed cotton will make the same 500-pouhd bale of lint This !k possible because the electric picker picks up little dirt and other trash and because the electric elec-tric picker makes the balls fluffy and tho gin secures se-cures more lint Statistics show that In one year 34.000 carloads of dirt were brought to the cotton gins of the South with the seed cotton. The lat t attempt to replace hand picking may be called the life work of L. C. Stuekenborg of Memphis. Tenn. He received his inspiration when watching a cow which had brokeu down the sales and wandered Into his cotton field. Cows will eat cotton for the seed imbedded in the fibre, and as tlr.s cow went from plant to plant he noted the case with which the cotton was removed from tho bollc by the cows rough tongue. After experiments extending over fourteen ear he perfected two revolving brushes incased in a small metal frame about the siz of a man's double fists. The brushes were made to revolve inwardly, or toward one another, thus creating n comb-like movement, nnd when these were placed against the cotton, pulled it free from the polls without collecting any part of the boll or leaves of tho plant. Tho picked cotton was hen thrown from six to ten Inches behind the brushes by centrifugal force nnd dropped !nt a tube through which air suction carried it over a fan and across a serein cleaning screen in'o fl has; attached to the machine. Each machine carries a complete electrle power plant. There are four picking tubes to a machine Aa It passes through tho field it can pick eight rows. The ordinary negro plantation help findn no tro'ible In using it. and in comparing compar-ing his work tor a given period it was found that where he formerly picked 100 pounds by Land, he picked 400 pounds by machine. I I ' w v VV' - t v r 1 ! La 1 I I HotO the fAchcr i's hnutllrii |