How Do You Pick Cotton By Hand?
For years, cotton was picked by hand. Cotton grew on a tall green stalk with a closed boll on the end. When it was ready for harvesting, the boll would turn brown and open revealing the cotton inside. Laborers would spend hours pulling the cotton out of the boll and stuffing them in sacks for harvesting. This article will explain how to pick cotton by hand. Make a sack by attaching a strap to opposite sides of a pillowcase. Slip the strap over your head allowing the sack to rest on your side but slightly behind you. You want to be able to easily drop cotton into the sack. Pull the cotton out of the brown boll and stuff, it into the sack and move to the next one. Cotton is planted in rows and each laborer would repeat this action until each cotton boll on a row is empty of all cotton. Weigh the picked cotton. Dump each full sack of cotton into a large sheet, bin or designated container. If using a sheet, grab the four corners and tie them together to prevent the cotton from falling out.
