I heard some bad news today....

[Koolau]

Back to "chopping cotton" for a moment. Unless I missed it, I didn't see the "answer" I was presented IN a cotton field in AZ back in the '70s. My Megacorp had "business" with cotton growers and I led a small team of folks "simulating" chopping cotton. It was 'splained to me by our local station chief (plant pathologist or similar) that chopping cotton was the first pass through the freshly planted cotton, with a hoe and THINNING the cotton. Apparently, cotton is over planted and then thinned (at least in the old days - and thinned by hand.) My cursory search of the net seems to confirm this though some "experts" seem to think it was weeding.

Always loved the song. It took on a special meaning as I was a man "out standing" in my field (actually someone else's cotton field.) As I fumbled to complete my work in the early morning, the spray rigs had ice cycles hanging from them. My fingers were frozen and I could barely write by flashlight. By end of the day, it was in the mid '80s.

I learned that by "mounding" the rows of soil and planting cotton on the east side of the mound, a farmer could plant 3 weeks earlier because the plants would catch the early sun. Yeah, TMI but this discussion brought back a flood of memories (Confrontation with the Farm Workers Union, watching a fatal car accident, sun burns from hell, etc.)

Returning you now to your regularly scheduled discussion. Oh, and YMMV.

 

[ERD50]

Back to "chopping cotton" for a moment. Unless I missed it, I didn't see the "answer" I was presented IN a cotton field in AZ back in the '70s. My Megacorp had "business" with cotton growers and I led a small team of folks "simulating" chopping cotton. It was 'splained to me by our local station chief (plant pathologist or similar) that chopping cotton was the first pass through the freshly planted cotton, with a hoe and THINNING the cotton. Apparently, cotton is over planted and then thinned (at least in the old days - and thinned by hand.) My cursory search of the net seems to confirm this though some "experts" seem to think it was weeding.

Always loved the song. It took on a special meaning as I was a man "out standing" in my field (actually someone else's cotton field.) As I fumbled to complete my work in the early morning, the spray rigs had ice cycles hanging from them. My fingers were frozen and I could barely write by flashlight. By end of the day, it was in the mid '80s.

I learned that by "mounding" the rows of soil and planting cotton on the east side of the mound, a farmer could plant 3 weeks earlier because the plants would catch the early sun. Yeah, TMI but this discussion brought back a flood of memories (Confrontation with the Farm Workers Union, watching a fatal car accident, sun burns from hell, etc.)

Returning you now to your regularly scheduled discussion. Oh, and YMMV.

Yes, I brought it up, but it was way back in post # 6:

I lived on a farm when that song came out, and though we were up North here in IL, that line about 'chopping cotton' didn't sound right to me. Would cotton be ready for 'chopping' by the 3rd of June, even in the warm South? I figured it was some LA or New York song writer.

But my recent research showed that 'chopping cotton' meant weeding it, chopping at the weeds, not chopping down the cotton for harvest. OK, that makes more sense.

"Thinning" makes a lot of sense too, and since you have experience I'd take that over "weeding".

I wasn't familiar with the idea of planting on the side of the mound of dirt (the "hill") to capture more warmth from the early sun, though I know that is done on mountain sides. Interesting.

-ERD50