January 15, 2009

Before the advent of the mechanical cotton picker in the early twentieth century, all cotton was picked by hand—perhaps the most labor-intensive job on a plantation or farm. By the early 1900s, a laborer picking cotton would commonly drag a long cotton sack, in which bolls would be placed, along the cotton rows. In earlier times, large wicker baskets, as shown in this Desha County image, were also used to collect the cotton.