PICKING COTTON by Jeannie Travis I don't reckon growing cotton is as bad as growing tobacco, but theres plenty of work involved....I've read that plowing an acre of land is the same as walking 10 miles......so look at how many miles Daddy had to walk before one boll of cotton was picked ! He plowed the ground with a 1 row breaking plow....then he disked it with a smallish riding disk...then he walked behind an old weighted harrow that broke up the clods. Next step was to plant the seeds with a one row walk behind planter. When it was time to hoe the plants he went up and down each side of the row with a scraper....also walking...so each acre was a 20 mile walk.....We came along and hoed the grass and weeds out in the middles and thinned or pulled dirt up to the plants as needed...After the weedy plants were dead Daddy went down each middle and tilled it.....He and Mom helped hoe, also...Or us little goomers helped them, more like....That makes 55 miles to the acre of walking if I'm counting right....plus the hoeing he did..This operation was done more than once...maybe 3 or 4 times before the plants got so big they were just allowed to bush out and bloom.... How we hated to see those cotton bolls popping open in the Fall ! ....Mama and Daddy pulled the long sacks and us kids made do with grass sacks with a rag strap...Starting when we were 5 or 6...When you watch Sally Fields and those other movie stars picking cotton they hold the boll with one hand and tug the cotton out with the other, one lock at a time.....WHO taught them how to pick cotton ? What you do is take 2 rows through the field, and you don't straighten up except every once in awhile to see if your back still works....or go to the wagon to weigh up....Toting that big sack slung over your shoulder is not easy but a welcome chance to stand straight......Yep, all day long you pull a heavy canvas cotton sack through the middles .... 'Course the part that drags on the ground has a layer of tar on it so the cloth won't wear out so fast....Both hands are going at once alright, but each hand picks a boll...fingers splayed out just right to go between the hard, pointed cotton boll sections....After your hand is full of cotton you cram it down into the slanted opening of the sack and reach for another boll.... Running into a patch of cockle burrs is special torture...as it is so hard on the hands, clothes, etc....Cotton bolls pick up the burrs and you have to take time to pull them off...Clean cotton brings better money...In later years we hired out to pick cotton for the neighbors and always got compliments on how clean our cotton was...We used the money we made to buy school clothes, shoes and supplies...Back then parents had to buy the school books, and Mama must go to school on opening day and bargain for used books for her brood and swap with folks...You better believe we took good care of our books so we could make good trades...No wonder lots of folks didn't get an education...... Let's get back to that cotton patch ! After the cotton was weighed, it was dumped out into the wagon that had high sideboards added...When it was full or the fields were clean, the mules were hitched to it and it was driven to the cotton gin and sold.....If it was a big field, by the time you finished picking it, the other side of the patch was ready to be picked again .... Mama said the first year she and Daddy were married cotton was one of the crops they planted....By the time she had hoed the patch over it was ready to start again......Imagine waking up every morning knowing that after you cooked breakfast, washed the dishes, redded up the house ,milked the cow, and put the soup beans on the back of the stove to finish cooking real slow, that you had to go hoe cotton in that hot sun EVERY day ! Arrgghh ! ____________________________________________________________ Top 2010 Online Colleges Grant Funding May Be Available to Those That Qualify. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/4d3686f91020ba447cm06duc