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These are okra-leaf cotton plants still growing in a field. The plants are "non-determinatant" meaning that they continue to grow and set bolls until killed. "Squares" and closed "bolls" can be seen on the plants.

Prior to the formation of "squares" and bolls, there are blooms on an okra-leaf cotton plant.

This cotton is ready to be harvested. Most of the leaves are gone and the cotton bolls are open.

Farmer spend a lot of time observing their fields as the cotton matures. Based on many factors (including the number of mature bolls opened, the availabity of equipment, and the weather), the farmer makes the call as to when to "defoliate" the cotton. This process involves spraying on a chemical which causes the plants to drop the leaves (some use other chemicals which burn the leaves off. Arsenic used to be applied.) The chemical can be sprayed on by a ground machine or by a low-flying air craft.

This is a view of a four-row spindle cotton picker moving forward through a field of defoliated cotton. The four sets of yellow "scoops" are set at a distance so that a single row of cotton is in the middle of that set of scoops. The machine is driven forward so that the rows remain alligned.

This is a close-up of one set of the "scoops" and the front spindles. The spindles are metal spikes about four inches long that are installed on sets of spinning cylinders. The spindles are set so that the cotton is plucked by them.

Once the cotton is taken into the machine, a series of cylinders with spindles moves the cotton first to the side, then back, and finally the cleaned cotton is forced up into the basket at the back of the machine. For this photo, the owner opened the side door to expose the cyliners and spindles. When closed, the cotton is forced between the inside of the door and back by the movement of the spindles and cylinders.

This is the very back of one set on a picker. From here, the cotton will be moved up into the basket at the high rear of the machine.

The two large green machines are cotton "strippers" and not true cotton "pickers. Although strippers and pickers look the same from a difference, the techniques used to remove the cotton from the plant is very different.

Strippers are faster. Their down side is that they do not work well on tall cotton and more "trash" stays with the cotton and this decreases the market value of the cotto

As does a spindel picker, a cotton stripper has sets of "scoops" at the front of the machine. This machine uses wiry brushes and auger screws to remove and process the cotton bowls. While faster, the stripper takes in more trash with the cotton (which remains with the cotton throughout the process) and reduces the grade of the cotton.

In a cotton stripper, the cotton is moved from the front scoops up and slightly to the rear (right below the cab.) Here smaller brushes and a large auger screw continue the movement of the cotton. The cotton is then blown up into the basket at the back of the machine.

When the basket of a machine is full of cotton, the machine is driven close to a large stationary piece of equipment called a "module maker." Hydraulics lift and tip the basket over the module maker. A door opens on the top and the cotton falls out into the module maker. The picker then returns to the field to continue harvesting.

The crew that worked the Hrncir farm ran three strippers. To keep the harvest moving at full rate, a boll buggy was used. This is a trailer pulled behind a tractor that is driven next to a full stripper. The stripper dumps into the buggy and returns to harvesting. The buggy than is pulled to the compactor and the cotton dumped. (The lady driving the tractor pulling this buggy has a college degree in a math field. She chooses to work cotton.)

This view is looking into a module maker. If you look into the screened area, an "H" shaped opject can be seen inside. This is the frame of the tamping mechanism. The operator sits high on the opposite end of the machine and moves the tamping devised up, down, and over, from one end to the other compressing the cotton.

This is complete module that has been compressed. The module maker it self is pulled foward, a rear door opens, and the module slides out. A tarp is quickly placed over the module so that rain will not soak into the module. An identification number is also spray painted onto the side of the module.

This view shows the compacted raw cotton, one of the sprayed on numbers, and the side of the tarp.

This machine is a two-row spindle picker. The front spindles have been removed and it has been coverted into a huge vaccuum machine. On each side of the cab, there are two shoots that run from down low, up, and to the back. Each has an internal fan which creates suction. The machine is moved close to a model maker that the tubes are manually moved over the cotton that has fallen out of the module maker during the dumping process. When the basket is full (or when harvest is complete), the cotton is dumped into the module maker. The designers of this machine have dubbed it "El-Suck-O."

This is the rear view of a "module mover." It is attached to a semi. The driver backs the module mover up close to one end of the module. He then tilts the box. Rollers go out and the module is pulled into the box. When the module is loaded, the box is dropped and the truck heads off to the gin yard where the module is unloaded.

Growing cotton plants