The full text on this page is automatically extracted from the file linked above and may contain errors and inconsistencies.
1
i
r...:..N A,::l
No. 4-1600
'-t.)()I~
·n
1
THE
WORKS
I
.- • •
t,
I
(
PROGRAM
*****
I
-
--Works Progress Administration-•
For Relcnso in Morning Newspapers,
Monday, October 25, 1937.
Advent of Mechanical Cotton Picker Foreshadows Now Labor Problem for
South
The mechanical cotton pickor may, within 5 or 10 years,
displace upward of a half million cntton pickors of tho South.
Tho
resulting incroasod pressure on tho industrial lab0r market of tho
South mo.y bo further accentuated by tho f a ct that the largo sea.lo use
of rocontly dovel0pod and improved mechanical c0tton pickers may also
tend to reduce tho number of tenants and sharo croppers, / imulnto the
use of tractors and improved machinory in other phases of cotton culture,
result i n a gengraphical shift of c0tt0n producing acreage tn arons best
sui tod for mechanized tillngo and harvest, anc.'l. increase the sizo of cotton
farr1s.
Tho foregoi ng conclusi ons are embodied in a report prepared by the
Nationnl Rosoarch Project of the W0rks Pr ogress Ad.J inistra tinn and mnde
public todc,y by Works Pr0gross Administrator Harry L. Hopkins.
The report, cnti tled "Cha.nges in Farm Power and Equipme::1t !fochanical Cotton Picker,
11
is one in a series of reports nn cho.ngcs in
technology and labor require ment s in tho United St~t os since 1909.
In
tro.nsmi tting tho report on the Mocho,nical Cotton Picker, Corrington Gill,
Assistant AQ~inistrnto r and head of tho Division of Research, Statistics
Digitized by
Original from
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
No. 4-1600
and Record.s, states that
11 since
agricultural labor is excluded froi;i the
benefits of the State unemploynent insurance laws, any displacement of
cotton-farm tenants and sharecroppers that nay r esult from the mechaniza,...
tion of cottrm picking will be of imne diate con cern to agencies dealing
~~th problens of economic s e curity and r e lie f.
The t enancy and share-
cropp i ng syster:i of the Cotton Belt p r nvide s large nu,-:-ibers nf hand l aborers
Me chaniza tion
now 11LH.1 u.od f(")r p oak or-ior n. tinna :!.n th n prno11r.tinn nf c0ttnn .
of cotton picking would sub stantially r educe the labor requir or.w!'.. ts
during tho harve sti ng s ea son a nd would. t hus free the cotton crop from
depondoncc upon large nuob e rs of te nants and sharecroppers who, with their
Tho liko lihoorl t:hat
fan ilios, supply t ho 1:1ajor po rtio n of t hat labor.
the i nt r oduction of a successful r.1o c hanica l picker will r esult i :1 an
acceleration of tho shift fr om animal to tractor power, as well as i n a
tondo::-icy t oward the nochanization of proharvost operations, furt:hor
accentuates tho p r obkns of adjustno n t which nay -be anticipated for a
l a rge share of t ho working population of t h o Sout h .
I n c onclus i on tho report s t a. tos t ]-:a t
II i
11
n the areas suited to
nechanization, a s ucce ssful picker would t end to bring about an fr.crease
in the size of cotton f n,ri;is and also to encourage an expansion of acreage
devoted to cotton.
I n mar g i nal areas unsuited to mechanization cotton
acreage would t end to be r educed.
"The repe rcussion s of a suc cessf u l 1;1echanical picker would not
be conf i ne d within t he lir;-; i ts of t he Unit ed S tates .
A r.iechan ica l pi9ke r
would encourage sign ificant increases i !l. cotton acr2age i n A-1stra lia~
1
Brazil, and Argenti na, as well as i n this c ountry..
The future i n t er-
national trade po licy a "1d the dome stic agricultural policy of this
cotmtry will have a bearing on the p rospe cts of the mechanical p icker ;
Digitized by
Original from
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
No. 4-1600
3 -
so also will changes in the uses to which cotton is put and the extent
to which synthetic fibers displace cotton."
The study was made by agricultural economists and engine ers
and is based upon a canvass of available information and first hand
observations of the experimental mechanical cotton pickers operating in
tho fall of 1936.
They evaluate the economic prospects for tho 1936
machine as follows: tho single-row machine would make throe pickings per
year on 80 acres of cotton, tho early models would last only 5 years, 5
p ercent of the lint and seed would be left in the field and the market
VQlue of the cotton picked would be lowered 12 percent by trash and discoloration.
The overhead of the mechanical picker was assumed to amount
to $3 0 62 per acre.
The operating costs based on 60 cents per hour for . the
tractor and 30 cents per hour for each of two operators, are sot at $4.80
per acre.
On land yielding 300 pounds of lint cotton per acre the loss
resulting from 5 percent of c0tton left in tho field would thus amount
to $1.80• at 12 cents per pound.
In addition, an estimated loss of 30
pounds of s eed at $35.00 per ton amounts to $0.52.
The l nss from lowered
value of the recovered 285 pounds of lint cott on, because of trash and
discoloration, is e stimated at 12 perce nt, or an additional $4.10 per
acre.
This amounts to a total c ost of $14.84 per acre charged to tho
mechanical picker.
At a ratio nf throe to one by weight between seed and
lint cotton, the cost of machine pick ing would then be $1.65 per 100
pounds of seed cotto:1.
In 1936 the cost of ha11d picking the same ar.iount
of cotton in the Mississippi Delta was about $1.00.
Hence the report's
conclusion that "the Llechanical picker in its present stage of developnent is not likely to take the Cotton Belt by storm. 11
Digitized by
Original from
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
@FedFRASER