PLANTATION LIFE AND THE EARLY CLEANING PROCESSES.
After many months of anxious watching and waiting, towards the end of
July or early in August, the planter may be seen to be constantly and
wistfully looking for the appearance of the bursting bolls of cotton.
Daily in the early mornings he is to be seen casting his eyes down the
pod-laden rows of cotton plants, to see if he can count a few ripe open
bolls as he stands at the head of a row. If this be so, he knows that
his harvest is close at hand, and his pickers must be ready at any
moment to begin what is certainly the most tedious and difficult work of
the plantation, namely, picking the raw cotton from the bursting bolls.
While the planter has been on the lookout in the fields, necessary and
important operations have been going on inside in the farm outbuildings.
Sacks and baskets which can most expeditiously aid in the removal of the
picked cotton from the field to the ginning factory are being got ready.
To suit the young and old, tall and small, weak and strong, different
sized bags and baskets are required, and after the marking and branding
of the same, they are ready for being put into use.
Now the picking of cotton is not at all an easy operation, long
continuous bending, a hot sun (for it is a rule scarcely ever broken
that cotton must not be plucked unless the sun is shining upon it), a
constantly increasing weight round the neck or on the arm, monotonous
picking of the cotton from the bolls without bringing away any of the
husk or leaf--all tend to make the work of the picker very trying and
tiresome. The plantation hands must be early at work, and while the day
is very young they are to be seen wending their way, ready to begin when
the sun makes its appearance. Often the clothes of the workers are quite
wet with the early morning dews. This is specially the case in September
and October. By ten o'clock a hot blazing sun streams down upon the
pickers as they diligently relieve the heavy-laden bushes of the white
fleecy load of cotton. As each picker fills his or her bag, it is
quickly emptied into a larger receptacle, and ultimately carried away to
the gin house, where it is desirable the cotton should be housed before
the night dews come on and consequently damage materially the cotton
which the pickers have been careful to pick while the sun was on it.
Mr. Lyman, in his book on the Cotton Culture in the States, says: "It
seems like very easy work to gather a material which shows itself in
such abundance as fairly to whiten the field, but let the sceptic or the
grumbler take a bag on his shoulders and start in between a couple of
rows. He will find upon taking hold of the first boll that the fibres
are quite firmly attached to the interior lining of the pod, and if he
makes a quick snatch, thinking to gather the entire lock, he will only
tear it in two, or leave considerable adhering to the pod. And yet he
may notice that an experienced picker will gather the cotton and lay his
fingers into the middle of the open pod with a certain expertness which
only practice gives, the effect of which is to clear the whole pod with
one movement of the hand."
Knowing how intensely monotonous and dreary the work of cotton picking
is, Mr. Lyman advises the planters to allow a very fair amount of
liberty so far as merrymaking is concerned, and he says on this point
that "though too much talking and singing must interfere with labour, it
is earnestly recommended to every cotton grower to take care to secure
cheerfulness if not hilarity in the field. Remember that it is a very
severe strain upon the patience and spirits of any one, to be urged to
rapid labour of precisely the same description day by day, week by week,
month by month. Let there be refreshments at the baskets, a dish of hot
coffee in a cool morning, or a pail of buttermilk in a hot afternoon, or
a tub of sweetened water, or a basket of apples."
As a rule the cotton gathered on one farm, which has, generally
speaking, had something like uniformity in method of cultivation, will
produce cotton varying very little in quality and weight.
Hence on large farms there will be something like uniform quality of
cotton produced. It will, however, be clear to the general reader that
on the small farms of India, say where sufficient cannot be gathered on
one farm, or perhaps on a few farms, to make one bale, there will not be
that uniformity which is desirable, hence Indian cotton, especially of
the poorer types, varies a great deal more than the American varieties.
When the hands have gathered sufficient to fill the carts drawn in
America usually by mules, and in India by oxen, the cotton is taken to
houses in which the seeds are separated from the fibre. This process is
called "ginning."
It is astonishing to find how tenaciously the fibres cling to the seed
when an attempt is made to separate them. At first much loss was
occasioned because of the brutal methods employed, and now even with
very much more perfect machinery a good deal of the cotton fibre is
injured in the ginning process.
Image: FIG. 8.--Indian women with roller gin.
At present, most of the cotton produced in various parts of the world is
ginned by machinery, though in India and China foot gins and other
primitive types are still employed.
It should be stated that where a large production of cotton is desired
the foot gin or even what is known as the "Churka gin" (which consists
of a couple of rollers turned by hand) is never employed. Only a few
pounds a day of cotton can be separated from the seeds when this method
is adopted.
The following extract from a lecture by the late Sir Benjamin Dobson
will be of interest here, as showing what is done at an American
ginnery:
"The farmer brings the cotton to the mill in a waggon, with mules or
oxen attached; the cotton is weighed, and then thrown out of the waggon
into a hopper alongside. From this hopper it is taken by an elevator, or
lift, either pneumatic or mechanical, and raised to the third story of
the ginning factory. There it is delivered into another part of the room
until required. When the cotton is to be ginned it is brought by rakes
along the floor to an open sort of hopper or trunk, and from here
conveyed to the gins below by travelling lattices.
"In the factory of which I am speaking there were six gins, all of them
saw-gins. Each gin was provided with a hopper of its own, and the
attendant, when any hopper was full, could either divert the feed to
some other gin, as he required, or stop it altogether. The gins produced
from 300 pounds to 350 pounds per hour. The cotton is dropped from the
condenser, in front of the gin, upon the floor close to the baling
press, into which it is raked by the attendant and baled loosely, but
only temporarily. The seed falls into a travelling lattice, and is
conducted to a straight cylindrical tube, in which works a screw. This
takes it some one hundred yards to the oil mill. There the seed is
dropped into what are known as 'linting' machines, and as much as
possible of the lint or fibre left upon the seed is removed.
"These linting machines--practically another sort of gin--deliver the
cotton or waste in a kind of roll, which is straightway put behind a
carding engine. Coming out of the carding engine it is made into
wadding by pasting it on cardboard paper, for filling in quilts,
petticoats, and for other purposes. When the seed has passed the linting
machine, it is taken, still by a lattice, to a hulling machine. This
machine will take off the outside shell, which is passed to one side,
while the green kernel of the seed goes down a shoot. The seed fills
certain receptacles placed in the oil press, and is submitted to a
hydraulic press. The result is a clear and sweet oil, which I am
credibly informed is sold in England and other countries under the name
of 'olive oil.' The remains of the green kernel are then pressed into
what are termed cattle cakes, or oil cakes, for feeding cattle."
But the reader is probably asking, what is a gin like?
The illustration seen in Fig. 9 is a gin which goes by the name of the
"single-acting Macarthy gin," so called because it has only one
oscillating blade for removing the fibre from the seed. The back of the
machine is shown in the figure. This process at the best is a brutal
one, especially when certain gins are employed, but the one figured here
is considered to do little damage to the fibre when extracting the seed.
The gin shown in Fig. 9 is of simple construction, consisting of a large
leather roller about 40 inches in length and 5 in diameter. "The roller
is built up by means of solid washers, or in strips fastened on to wood,
against which is pressed a doctor knife.
"The cotton is thrown into a hopper, and, falling, is seized by the
friction of the leather and drawn between the doctor knife and the
leather surface. Whilst this is taking place, there is a beater knife
which is reciprocated at a considerable speed and which strikes the seed
attached to the cotton drawn away by the leather roller. The detached
seed will then fall through a grid provided for the purpose. A
single-action gin should produce about 30 pounds of cleaned cotton per
hour."
Image: FIG. 9.--Single-acting Macarthy gin.
Another gin which does considerable damage to fibre, especially if it be
over-fed, is still in use in the States. This was the invention of an
American named Eli Whitney, and has been named a "saw-gin."
If the reader can imagine a number of circular saws (such as are to be
seen in a wood-sawing mill) placed nearly together on a shaft to form an
almost continuous roller, he will have a good idea of what the chief
part of a saw-gin is like.
As the cotton is fed to the machine, the saws seize it and strip the
cotton from the seeds, which fall through grids placed below the saws.
The cotton is afterward stripped from the saws themselves by means of a
quickly revolving brush which turns in the opposite direction to the
saws. This gin is best suited to short stapled cottons, especially such
as are grown in the States. For the longer fibred cotton this gin is not
well adapted, much injury resulting to the cotton treated by it.
After the cotton is ginned, it is gathered into bundles and roughly
baled. When a sufficient quantity has been so treated, it is carried to
the "compressors," where the cotton undergoes great reduction in bulk as
a result of the enormous pressure to which it is subjected.
For the general reader it will scarcely be necessary or wise to describe
a "cotton press" in detail. Let it suffice to say that by means of a
series of levers--in the Morse Press seven are used--tremendous pressure
can be obtained. Thus for every 1 pound pressure of steam generated
there will be seven times that pressure, if seven levers are used. When
200 pounds pressure of steam is up, there will be 1400 pounds pressure
per inch on the cotton. So great is the pressure exerted that a bundle
of cotton coming to the press from the ginnery, 4 feet in depth, is
reduced to 7 inches when drawn from the compressor. While in the press
iron bands are put round the cotton, and readers will have frequently
seen cotton on its way to the mills having these iron bands round it.
The following table shows the number of bands which are found on bales
coming to England from cotton-growing countries:--
No. of bands. Weight in lbs.
American bale 6 or 7 500
Egyptian " 11 700
Indian " 13 390
Turkish " 4 250-325
American Cylindrical bale -- 420-430
Brazilian -- 175-220
Within the last few years an entirely new industry has been started in
some of the Southern States of America.
Up to recently the bales sent to European countries from America were
all of the same type as shown by the centre bale in Fig. 10.
Image: FIG. 10.--Bales from various cotton-growing countries.
Now a vast quantity of cotton is being baled in the form as shown in
Fig. 11, and what are known as cylindrical bales are being exported in
large numbers. In the "Round Bale" Circular of the American Cotton
Company, it is stated that from the 21st November, 1896, to January
2nd, 1897, no less than 1443 round bales were turned out of the factory
at Waco in Texas. The total weight of these bales was 614,832 pounds,
giving an average of 426 pounds per bale.
By means of a press the cotton is rolled into the form as shown in the
illustration. The press makes a bale 4 feet long and 2 feet in diameter
and weighs over 35 pounds per cubic foot or 50 per cent. denser than the
bale made under the system as shown in Fig. 10.
Image: FIG. 11.--Cylindrical rolls of cotton.
It is claimed for this new system that the regularity of the size of the
bale, 4 x 2 feet, makes it pack much closer than the irregular
turtle-backed bales as usually made on the old system.
Under the new style the cotton is pressed gradually and not all at once.
For this reason it is claimed that the fibre is not injured and the
cotton arrives at the mill with the fibre in as good condition as when
it left the gins.
"Bagging and ties are entirely dispensed with, as the air is pressed out
of the cotton and it has no tendency to expand again, and the covering
needed is only sufficient to keep the cotton clean."
From a number of experiments it is proved that the "round bale" is both
fireproof and water proof.
From the illustration of the round bale shown in Fig. 11, it will be
seen how readily this new form of bale lends itself to greatly aiding
the operatives in the opening processes in the mill. The roll which lies
on the floor like a roll of carpet could be so fixed that the cotton
could be fed to the opener by being unrolled as shown in the
illustration.
At present the round bale system is not popular and it remains to be
seen whether it will commend itself to cotton spinners.