Cotton Harvesting, Part 2

Continued from Part 1.

When the cotton picker was full, it was brought over to a trailer parked at the edge of the field. The picker parked beside the trailer at one end. The gate on the picker cleared the top of the trailer by at least a foot. The top of the trailer was 7 to 8 feet above the ground; this gives some idea of the height of the cotton picker. The basket gate was opened and the cotton fell out.

The workers in the trailer distributed the cotton evenly across the trailerand compacted in the trailer by the workers as they moved around but much was still loosely piled on top of the load.

The picker was then moved along the trailer and …

the process repeated. The workers were up to their waists in the cotton; it must have been hard work to move around in the cotton.

A fair amount of cotton had fallen off the trailer. Workers gathered this up and tossed it back in the trailer. A tractor with an attachment then moved around the trailer to compact the cotton. From this single picking run, it looked like two runs filled the trailer.

The trailer was then taken to a depot for shipment to a cotton gin. I’m not sure where this cotton was taken, possibly to the Bostwick Gin in Bostwick in Morgan County which is one of the few operational gins in North Georgia.
Click on an image to view a larger image

Related posts:
- Cotton Harvesting, Part 1