Cotton Pickin' confused

[daugen]

this is off JD's site:

Home / Cotton Harvesting / 7760 Cotton Picker
7760
Cotton Picker
Features & Specs

Onboard module building system
Full-time four-wheel drive
Heavy-duty row-unit gearcase
High-output sound system

See All Features

Seriously powerful machine, but why would JD list what sure sounds like a stereo system as one of the top four features? What am I missing?
Is there something about cotton harvesting that has anything to do with "sound"?...

Just having fun here, but I bet 535hp is more important to the farmer than a Sony stereo...

I was just curious to learn what a cotton picker/harvester looked like.
Looks like Bose has become optional.

update: actually no, just a standard single disc CD stereo with four small speakers. Huh?

[bigblock]

For what they cost they ought to have a great sound system!

[AGRIMAN]

For what they cost they ought to have a great sound system!

Yea... for $600,000 you would think that it would have at least one bath.

[AKfish]

Yea... for $600,000 you would think that it would have at least one bath.

Whoa.... now I know why my Carhartts are $50!

AKfish

[TripleR]

If you have never seen cotton harvesting, it really is interesting. I grew up picking and "tromping" cotton. The first automated pickers were mounted on tractors turned around backwards. When the harvest was finished, the picker was put on stands and the tractor used in regular mode.

The machines used ow are massive and with the advent of modules and trucks to carry them out, remotely operated "sucks" in the cotton gins, there isn't much physical labor involved anymore.

I worked in a high cotton producing area with an Interstate, north/south passing through and it was not uncommon to see someone pull over, jump the rails, run off into a field and pick a handful of raw cotton or uproot a whole plant.

[creekbend]

I have never picked cotton, but my Grandfather on my Father's side, told me that he did when he was young. He said that one's hands, at the end of the day, would be bleeding. He told me that gloves weren't very useful when picking cotton. Those massive machines have definitely increased production.

[daugen]

I haven't seen much cotton, which is why I was curious what a purpose built cotton harvester looked like. Like a lima bean harvester...what makes each one different? The crop of course, but I find the mechanicals interesting.
I remember seeing one field, all in white, and I wondered if the birds would come in and pick the cotton for their nests. Maybe wrong time of year, but who wouldn't want a supima cotton bed?...

These large harvesters, applicators, drills,etc, are remarkably complicated. Just looking at a hay baler makes me wonder how all those moving parts keep working and not get jammed with something.
Commercial farmers today sure need to have serious mechanical skills. I guess farmers always have.

[TripleR]

I have never picked cotton, but my Grandfather on my Father's side, told me that he did when he was young. He said that one's hands, at the end of the day, would be bleeding. He told me that gloves weren't very useful when picking cotton. Those massive machines have definitely increased production.

My mother took us to the cotton fields when we were old enough to drag on a cotton sack. If you were too little to keep up, you just sat or laid on the cotton sack and she dragged you behind her; much nice as the sack filled up. Once you got kind of mobile and wouldn't get left behind, you "helped" pick. You can't imagine how long it takes little fingers or even big ones for that matter to pick a pound of cotton and a good picker could do 300 pounds a day.

When you get use to it, you don't mess your hands up too much and develop a feel for the barbs before sliding your fingers between them to pick out the cotton.

When mechanical pickers were first used and for many years thereafter, we followed behind them and picked the cotton they missed. As pickers improved this was discontinued because the profit just wasn't there; being paid by the pound you had to do a lot of walking and scavenging to fill your bag. Cotton is also "graded" and if the prices are not high, the cotton containing dirt, leaves etc. was docked so much it just wasn't worth it.

I sure don't miss picking cotton and was glad to be put out of business in my teens by the pickers.

[daugen]

My mother took us to the cotton fields when we were old enough to drag on a cotton sack. If you were too little to keep up, you just sat or laid on the cotton sack and she dragged you behind her;

Marvelous memory, your Mom was strong!
We had feed corn planted for awhile in the front field, and in our front lawn was a big boulder, maybe ten feet by six feet wide, and about three feet high.
After playing "king on the mountain" on the rock, we would use it to hand grind corn cobs on the rock edge. We filled up burlap bags and after doing one bag, we
decided there were easier ways to make money for sure.

[AKfish]

I worked in a high cotton producing area with an Interstate, north/south passing through and it was not uncommon to see someone pull over, jump the rails, run off into a field and pick a handful of raw cotton or uproot a whole plant.

Why...? What can you do with a handful of raw cotton? Just the "novelty" of having it?

AKfish