Cotton-pickin' kids

These children pose for G.D. Fronabarger in a cotton field somewhere in Southeast Missouri in this undated photo.

A story in the Southeast Missourian's annual Achievement Edition of Jan. 31, 1948 included a photograph of cotton pickers. Here is an excerpt:

Not way down in Dixie, but in Scott County where cotton is a major crop. In the lower counties of southeast Missouri--Scott, Mississippi, New Madrid, Pemiscot and Dunklin--cotton provides the major source of farm income, although in recent years being closely approached by the soybean. Cape County lies on the northern boundary of the cotton country, the crop being found in the south part of the county but not in the north section.

C.M. Barnes, a cotton farming authority at Marston, Mo., explained the problem with harvesting the cotton crop mechanically:

Mechanical cotton harvesters are available which under favorable conditions will retrieve from 70 to 90 percent of the crop, but so mixed with leaf and trash that it will not gin to a grade that compares with hand-picked cotton. These machines are heavy and complicated; they are yet too expensive to be relied upon to harvest any major portion of the crop. For some years, therefore, the cotton acreage must be limited to the supply of labor to harvest the crop satisfactorily.

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Cotton Picking