This picking sack was the property of Annie Casey, a woman who picked cotton near Clarksdale, Mississippi. Cotton farming was strenuous work, cycling through planting the crop, chopping the cotton to keep it clear of weeds, and finally the picking itself. The harvest lasted from September until as late as December, sometimes keeping children of farmers and laborers out of school for weeks or months at a time. The cotton plant had a soft white boll nestled in a woody husk, rough enough to tear the cuticles and hands of pickers. Some teachers checked children's fingers for proof that they had been picking cotton.
How much one could pick in a day depended on age, height, strength, method, and even luck-300 pounds was a good day for a man or a woman. Cotton pickers spent the day bent over, dragging the increasingly heavy sack behind them as they picked up and down the rows, sometimes stopping at the end for a drink of water. Farmers in the South often worked "from can 'til can't," or from sunup to sundown.
Cotton farming in the United States has been entirely mechanized, from planning to chopping to picking to ginning. This cotton sack is the standard size for an adult. Children too young to tote a full-sized sack picked into feed- or flour-sacks, or pillowcases.
