The Story of the Cotton Plant

by Frederick Wilkinson

PLANTATION LIFE AND THE EARLY CLEANING PROCESSES.

After many months of anxious watching and waiting, towards the end of July or early in August, the planter may be seen to be constantly and wistfully looking for the appearance of the bursting bolls of cotton. Daily in the early mornings he is to be seen casting his eyes down the pod-laden rows of cotton plants, to see if he can count a few ripe open bolls as he stands at the head of a row. If this be so, he knows that his harvest is close at hand, and his pickers must be ready at any moment to begin what is certainly the most tedious and difficult work of the plantation, namely, picking the raw cotton from the bursting bolls.

While the planter has been on the lookout in the fields, necessary and important operations have been going on inside in the farm outbuildings. Sacks and baskets which can most expeditiously aid in the removal of the picked cotton from the field to the ginning factory are being got ready. To suit the young and old, tall and small, weak and strong, different sized bags and baskets are required, and after the marking and branding of the same, they are ready for being put into use.

Now the picking of cotton is not at all an easy operation, long continuous bending, a hot sun (for it is a rule scarcely ever broken that cotton must not be plucked unless the sun is shining upon it), a constantly increasing weight round the neck or on the arm, monotonous picking of the cotton from the bolls without bringing away any of the husk or leaf—all tend to make the work of the picker very trying and tiresome. The plantation hands must be early at work, and while the day is very young they are to be seen wending their way, ready to begin when the sun makes its appearance. Often the clothes of the workers are quite wet with the early morning dews. This is specially the case in September and October. By ten o'clock a hot blazing sun streams down upon the pickers as they diligently relieve the heavy-laden bushes of the white fleecy load of cotton. As each picker fills his or her bag, it is quickly emptied into a larger receptacle, and ultimately carried away to the gin house, where it is desirable the cotton should be housed before the night dews come on and consequently damage materially the cotton which the pickers have been careful to pick while the sun was on it.

Mr. Lyman, in his book on the Cotton Culture in the States, says: "It seems like very easy work to gather a material which shows itself in such abundance as fairly to whiten the field, but let the sceptic or the grumbler take a bag on his shoulders and start in between a couple of rows. He will find upon taking hold of the first boll that the fibres are quite firmly attached to the interior lining of the pod, and if he makes a quick snatch, thinking to gather the entire lock, he will only tear it in two, or leave considerable adhering to the pod. And yet he may notice that an experienced picker will gather the cotton and lay his fingers into the middle of the open pod with a certain expertness which only practice gives, the effect of which is to clear the whole pod with one movement of the hand."

Knowing how intensely monotonous and dreary the work of cotton picking is, Mr. Lyman advises the planters to allow a very fair amount of liberty so far as merrymaking is concerned, and he says on this point that "though too much talking and singing must interfere with labour, it is earnestly 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 patience and spirits of any one, to be urged to rapid labour of precisely the same description day by day, week by week, month by month. Let there be refreshments at the baskets, a dish of hot coffee in a cool morning, or a pail of buttermilk in a hot afternoon, or a tub of sweetened water, or a basket of apples."

As a rule the cotton gathered on one farm, which has, generally speaking, had something like uniformity in method of cultivation, will produce cotton varying very little in quality and weight.

Hence on large farms there will be something like uniform quality of cotton produced. It will, however, be clear to the general reader that on the small farms of India, say where sufficient cannot be gathered on one farm, or perhaps on a few farms, to make one bale, there will not be that uniformity which is desirable, hence Indian cotton, especially of the poorer types, varies a great deal more than the American varieties. When the hands have gathered sufficient to fill the carts drawn in America usually by mules, and in India by oxen, the cotton is taken to houses in which the seeds are separated from the fibre. This process is called "ginning."

It is astonishing to find how tenaciously the fibres cling to the seed when an attempt is made to separate them. At first much loss was occasioned because of the brutal methods employed, and now even with very much more perfect machinery a good deal of the cotton fibre is injured in the ginning process.