grandpa Love
Well-known Member
I enjoy going to tractor shows and talking to folks who remember picking cotton by hand. Amazing how much things change in a few years
- Thread starter grandpa Love
- Start date
Steve@Advance
Well-known Member
There is a cotton festival in Burton Tx.
They have a museum and an old line shaft driven cotton gin, powered with a 2 stroke, 2 cylinder Bessemer hot bulb engine. They start it up and do demonstration runs every year for the festival. It makes the windows rattle for blocks around when they fire it up!
Quite a contraption, but it was old school, no machine picked cotton allowed! Had too many sticks and hulls, it would clog up the gins!
Burton Cotton Gin Festival
They have a museum and an old line shaft driven cotton gin, powered with a 2 stroke, 2 cylinder Bessemer hot bulb engine. They start it up and do demonstration runs every year for the festival. It makes the windows rattle for blocks around when they fire it up!
Quite a contraption, but it was old school, no machine picked cotton allowed! Had too many sticks and hulls, it would clog up the gins!
Burton Cotton Gin Festival
Richard G.
Well-known Member
Tim, where in SC did she live?
Richard in NW SC
Richard in NW SC
john in la
Well-known Member
It was the early 40's when black sharecroppers started coming out of the fields and moving north.
They were taking war time jobs vacated by people fighting the war.
The black population in the south was reduced by about 20% during the early 40's.
With no people to work the fields big land owners looked to mechanical cotton pickers.
It was the late 40's before someone realized you need to add water to the picker to make it work and IH started mass producing combines.
Before this time most every boll of cotton was picked by hand.
By 1960 most every boll of cotton was picked by a machine.
This same war was also the demise of cotton.
Not able to get silk from the far east they invented nylon to make parachutes.
They were taking war time jobs vacated by people fighting the war.
The black population in the south was reduced by about 20% during the early 40's.
With no people to work the fields big land owners looked to mechanical cotton pickers.
It was the late 40's before someone realized you need to add water to the picker to make it work and IH started mass producing combines.
Before this time most every boll of cotton was picked by hand.
By 1960 most every boll of cotton was picked by a machine.
This same war was also the demise of cotton.
Not able to get silk from the far east they invented nylon to make parachutes.
SweetFeet
Well-known Member
Cotton is still king in my world - prefer 100% cotton clothing.
I do not like nylon or polyester at all... feels like being clothed in a plastic bag to me (not cooling at all).
Would love to see cotton being harvested someday - but probably would not like the heat of the season though.
I do not like nylon or polyester at all... feels like being clothed in a plastic bag to me (not cooling at all).
Would love to see cotton being harvested someday - but probably would not like the heat of the season though.
old
Well-known Member
- Location
- Camdenton Missouri
My dad hated when it was time to pick cotton in Mississippi since they would spray the cotton and if the wind was blowing it could kill off his garden
1940's? Most corn was still being picked by hand back then too. Small grains were still hand stacked into shocks and pitchforked into threshing machines back then.
Eighty years ago is about half way back to when the western Midwest states were first being settles and new farms were just being carved out of the prairies. Farming and farm technology has probably been more stable here during the last forty years than in any prior times.
Eighty years ago is about half way back to when the western Midwest states were first being settles and new farms were just being carved out of the prairies. Farming and farm technology has probably been more stable here during the last forty years than in any prior times.
J Hamilton
Well-known Member
- Location
- Southern Illinois
I totally agree with 100% cotton clothing. Especially since I work in a shop using a welder and cutting torch at times. Polyester will melt to your skin and cause severe burns just from flying sparks
Grandparents lived in Arkansas. We traveled from Michigan 4 times a year to visit. What is mostly rice now in the Mississippi valley around Memphis was all cotton then. In the spring it would all be flooded up to or over the porches of the share croppers houses, usually sitting on 4 or 5 cement blocks. Late summer they would be out picking the bolls by hand. Canvas bags slung over their shoulders. Full bags laying around and their children dumping them into the wagons. 8 or 10 ft wire mesh sides. Still some cotton through there but more rice now. This was early to late 60's. About 72 or so started seeing a few machines do the picking and the little shacks empty.
Richard G.
Well-known Member
Yep, that was all cotton country back in the day.
That's about 45 miles east of us.
Where we are near the GA border just South of the mountains was all cotton and moonshine country back in those days.
That's about 45 miles east of us.
Where we are near the GA border just South of the mountains was all cotton and moonshine country back in those days.
John M
Well-known Member
- Location
- Nunyafn business
Im not far from Greer. Way back, for me anyways, the upstate was full of cotton farms.
Brown Swiss
Well-known Member
Nice area, delivered an 8 row JD planter for a cotton farm on 321 back in December!
John M
Well-known Member
- Location
- Nunyafn business
Where abouts on 321? I have some friends in York who farm.
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