Picker (agriculture)

“ Inventors and manufacturers gradually but constantly improved tractors along with the various devices attached to them. Most notable were the corn picker, in 1909, and the cotton picker, in 1942. (Dates are for commercial production in each instance.) Farmers found both machines impracticable until a power source independent of the ground wheel had been developed. More than anything else the tractor and its related equipment finally set men free from the worst drudgery of farming. It also set many farmers free from the need to farm at all. ”

“ The farmers in the great corn belt of the United States are realizing more and more that the longest and hardest and most expensive job on the farm these days of modern machinery is husking corn by hand, and, with this idea in view, an Illinois inventor has lately perfected a corn picker, which will do away with the husking by hand. ”

“ Bunt balls are lighter than wheat, and float in water, so if the wheat to be treated is poured slowly into the pickle, and in such a way that the bunt balls will not be carried down by the grain, they will float on top, and can be skimmed off and destroyed. The details of pickling vary on different farms, but a common method is to place the wheat about 2 bushels at a time in loosely-tied butts or bags, and then by means of a lever it is lowered into the solution for two or three minutes, when it is raised on to a sloping trough, where the superfluous solution can drain back into the cask. ”

“ Experiment Station (Bulletin No. 85, 1906) gives suggestions for gathering the pecan crop in the orchard which ought to be useful to the "wild picker." The nuts ought to be gathered as soon as the most of the burs have opened. In orchards, the pickers use ladders for young trees and climb the big ones and gather the nuts by hand into sacks. Beating and shaking the trees is only resorted to for the nuts that are entirely out of reach. If allowed to fall on the ground so many of the nuts are lost that the profits are materially lessened. ”

“ It is well adapted for sowing in August, or the beginning of September, for early use, and for marketing during the ensuing spring. Where the winter are mild, the crop, with slight protection, will sustain no injury in the open ground. In Europe it is much esteemed, and extensively grown for pickling, as its "white color, in contrast with the fine green veins, or lines, gives it a very agreeable appearance. For pickling, the seed should be sown very thickly, then slightly covered with fine soil, and afterwards rolled. ”

“ The amount of water they require depends upon how moist the soil is naturally, and as the crop is chiefly grown on moist river lands and around the bay, it is chiefly made without irrigation. Such lands have a cucumber capacity equal to the consumption of the United States, probably, and the pickle factories can usually get all they can use at a minimum transportation cost. Large-scale plantings should only be made by men who know the crop and have definite information or contract for what they can get for it. ”

“ In packing we aim to use the kind of package the market demands. The crop this season was all barreled. The pickers have been on the job long enough so that they are as able to discriminate as to what should go into a barrel and what should not as I am myself. However, our system is to always have about twice as many barrels open ready for the apples as there are pickers. ”

“ Anticipated social and economic effects of the mechanical cotton picker for which planning has been urged may be entirely voided by the successful production of a satisfactory substitute directly from the cellulose of trees without the intervention of the mule or the tractor and the plow. ”

“ There is no degree of cold, in a latitude where corn will grow, that will injure the seed, if it be gathered dry and kept so. Our rules for saving seed, given above, will always remedy this evil. This is, perhaps, the most profitable of all green crops for soiling cattle. Sown on clean, mellow land, it will produce an enormous weight of good green fodder, suitable for summer and early fall feeding of cows, just at a time when dry weather has nearly destroyed their pastures. Corn-fodder, well cured, is better for milch-cows than the best of hay. ”

“ Under factory conditions, processing is accomplished by placing the pickles in tanks, which are then filled with water and subjected to a current of steam, the pickles being agitated meanwhile. In most homes, however, the equipment for such treatment is not available. ”

“ A simple method of increasing the yield is that practised with success by some growers in the States. Pickers are trained to recognize the best plants, “that is, those most productive, earliest in ripening, and having the largest, best formed and most numerous bolls.” These pickers go carefully over the field, usually just before the second picking, and gather ripe cotton from the best plants only; this selected seed cotton is ginned separately, and the seed used for sowing the next year’s crop. ”

“ It is not to be expected there would be much of a crop grown in that way on unworked soil; provided he gets enough to feed his poultry, and give a little to the pigs, he may think he has done very well. The corn should be shelled by-and-bye, he will not need to buy a corn sheller for this small quantity, he can most likely do some of it himself during the evenings or he may be able to get some children to shell it for a few pence each. That for the pigs can be left on the cobs, they will prefer to shell it themselves. ”

“ With us, the early sowing of winter grain is of the first importance, to insure a full crop, early ripe, and most secure from mildew. The husbandry of Mr. Ducket, already described, justifies the practice. I know it is already common amongst us; but without the deep tillage which enabled him to put in seven crops with only four ploughings. With such complete tillage, of a soil so enriched as to yield forty or fifty bushels of Indian corn to the acre, grown on a level, without hills or ridges; and if, in harvesting the corn, it be cut close to the ground ”

“ The planter will tell you that he would be willing to stand the boll weevil, the dropped bolls, the extra cultivations, and all the remainder of it, if he could only be sure that cotton which did mature would be picked when it should be picked, and picked with rapidity and care. Picking is the most laborious, as it is the most picturesque operation on the plantation. Many types of machine pickers have been introduced, but there are few planters who will admit that any of them suits his particular needs. ”

“ For having remarked how your common pickle in use among housewives was of no farther benefit than to preserve dead flesh and certain kinds of vegetables, Peter with great cost as well as art had contrived a pickle proper for houses, gardens, towns, men, women, children, and cattle, wherein he could preserve them as sound as insects in amber. ”

“ A single plant has been known to yield as much as two pounds of fiber; but the most favorable average rarely affords more than one pound, and plants grown in indifferent soil scarcely a sixth of that quantity. The plantations are worked either by the owner or by day-laborers, who, when the market prices are very low, take half share of the crop harvested by them. In these cases an industrious workman may obtain as much as one picul in a week. During my stay exceptionally low prices ruled—sixteen and one-half reals per picul undelivered. ”

“ The practice of growing considerable areas of rape or cole seed, artichokes, peas of various kinds, beans, etc., to be fed off by pigs is not followed extensively in this country, although pig-keepers in the United States, Canada, Germany, Denmark, etc., have a partiality to it, since it is declared to save labour and to bring the land into a good manurial condition for the growth of corn crops ”

“ The growing of early vegetables and fruits for Northern markets is a flourishing industry in some sections where land supposedly almost worthless has been found to be admirably adapted for this purpose. An increasing acreage in various legumes not only furnishes forage but enriches the soil. Silos are to be seen here and there, and there are some excellent herds of dairy cattle, though the scarcity of reliable labor makes this form of farming hazardous. The cattle tick is being conquered, and more beef is being produced. ”

“ The pickle woman’s voice had a stiffer tone. “Then ye think I’m gettin’ rich too fast at a dollar a bushel.”
“Here is the situation, Mrs. O’Mally: On one hand we have what promises to be an over-supply of green cucumbers, which, of course, is your problem. On the other hand an unwise over-supply of high-priced pickles would be our problem. So, as I see it, the thing for us to do, to your best interests and to ours, is to get together on a price that will enable [129] us to buy your whole crop, to save you loss from waste, and also without risk to ourselves. ”

“ Do not forget that a fruit-tree is like a cow tied to an immovable stake, from which you cannot continue to draw a pail of milk per day unless you carry her a liberal supply of food; and every Fall cart in half a dozen loads of muck from some convenient swamp or pond for your pigs to turn over: Should they leave any weeds, cut them with a scythe as often as they seem to need it; never allowing one to ripen seed. There may be easier and surer ways to obtain choice fruits ”

“ The pickle factories always furnish a market for any surplus when the price is low, or the heads have become disfigured in any way. In fact, the supply of home grown cauliflowers is always insufficient for pickling purposes, and large amounts have to be annually imported, notwithstanding the tariff, which, formerly ten per cent., ad valorum, is now forty-five per cent. Imported cauliflowers are brought mainly from Germany and Holland, and come packed in brine in 60 gallon casks. Large quantities of mixed pickles containing cauliflower are also imported. ”

“ They have horses procured from Red river of the Indians; raise plenty of Irish potatoes; catch pike, suckers, pickerel, and 140 white-fish in abundance. They have also beaver, deer, and moose; but the provision they chiefly depend upon is wild oats, of which they purchase great quantities from the savages, giving at the rate of about $1.50 per bushel. But flour, pork, and salt are almost interdicted to persons not principals in the trade. ”

“ There are, again, other lands which, if not irrigated, will still produce the ordinary cereal crops to a more or less uncertain extent, but which, if water be used artificially upon them at appropriate times, are thereby fitted to and will produce much more certain and larger crops without it, and will be also rendered capable of producing fruit and grapes of all kinds, of first-rate quality, and in very large quantities. ”

“ The decay of the leaves and stems of these add to the under-water foothold of the bog, but after all it must be the reedy stems, sagittate leaves, and interwoven roots of the pickerel weed that are its main foundation.
Steadily seaward over the foundation thus laid progresses the long, definite front of the saw-edged marsh grass. Once it interlocks its roots along the mud surface formed for it, it leaves no room for the freer-growing denizens of the shallows. In among the marsh grass grows no flaunting flag of pickerel weed, [Pg 139] no pure white nymphæa sends forth its rich odor. ”

“ And very poor Land, well pulveriz’d, will produce better Corn than very rich will do, without Manure or Tillage. The Experiment may be made by paring off the Turf, and setting Corn in the whole Ground that is very rich; and that will shew how much the natural Pasture of the rich is inferior to the artificial Pasture of the poor Land; but then the poor must have this Proportion of Excess of internal Superficies continued to it, during the whole Time of their Growth, which cannot be done without frequently repeated Divisions of the Soil by Hoeing or Manure ”

“ Of course, the soil, climate, etc., of the district in which pigs are reared have a certain amount of influence, but this is noticeable to a much lesser extent with pigs than with horses, cattle, or sheep, since under the present system of pig-breeding the greater portion of the food used in the different districts is of a very similar character—indeed, much of it has a common origin—having been imported from abroad. ”

“ You can’t borrow money here with the specific idea of starting up a pickle factory. However, having confidence in you, because of past associations, I’m willing to advance you five hundred dollars on a thirty-day note at six per cent, to enable you to swing this pickle deal and thus save yourself from loss. If you find in selling your pickles that you have what would seem to be the nucleus of another industry, that will be taken up separately, by the proper people. Just give this slip to the cashier as you go out and your account will be credited accordingly. ”

“ One acre of soiling crops produced sufficient fodder for an equivalent of 3 cows for six months. Rye, corn, crimson clover, alfalfa, oats and peas, and millets have been found to furnish food more economically than any other green crops in that locality. A grain rotation was always fed in addition to the soiling crops. ”

“ In the fall, the summer's accumulation in hog-pens and barn cellars is spread upon the mowing grounds, and a liberal supply of muck carted in and spread in the bottoms of the cellars, ready for the season for stabling cattle. When this is well saturated with the drippings of the stables, a new supply is added. The accumulation of the winter is usually applied to the land for the corn crop, except the finer portion, which is used to top-dress meadow land. ”