Cotton Scale

[Peanut]

Look what I found in the shop this morning… My grandfather’s old “Pea Scale”. The name I knew it by was “Cotton Scale”. Both weights were with it, a 4lb weight and a 1lb weight. I thought it was lost in the ’74 tornado.

Edit to add - The name "P or "Pea" scale came from the french word "Poid" meaning to weigh or weight.

One side of the scale is incremented 0-40. The other side is incremented 0-160. If I remember correctly… using both weights someone could weigh anything that could be hung from the bottom hook from 0 to 199lbs. Dad said it was sold as a 200lb scale.

I used this scale often as a kid, most often when picking cotton. If we hired people to help us pick cotton they were paid by the pounds of cotton they picked each day. They’d pick a sack full, pull it to the cotton wagon where the bag was weighed, recorded by their name. They’d pick up an empty sack and return to work.

A woman and small children usually worked at the wagon. When bags were brought back, they’d be emptied into the wagon. Little kids then “packed down” the cotton by walking on it… Packing cotton could be a lot of fun for a group of little kids. The little kid “status” only lasted until about age 5. Then we picked cotton right beside the adults with kid sized cotton sacks.

Pics 1-3… the scale

Pic 4… My family picking cotton in sacks

Pic 5… a large cotton scale I’ve posted before. It hangs in a local restaurant now. As a teenager I used this very same scale at the cotton gin I worked at. I used it to weigh bales of cotton, usually 400 to 800lbs each. I think the scale is incremented up to 1000lbs.

 

[backlash]

My grandma said she always carried her water jug in her cotton sack and had it weighed everytime.
She also cheated at cards but would never admit it even when she was caught.

 

[Peanut]

That's why when a sack was being weighed they were given an empty sack to return to work... Some people would put rocks found in the field in their sacks.

If a rock was found when the bag was emptied... they'd be "fined or fired".

If it was a kid they earned a trip to the peach tree to get a switch.

 

[Peanut]

This afternoon on the way to town I kept trying to piece together something that happened about 55yrs ago. I’m sure I’m missing a few details.

It was August, school hadn’t started yet and we were picking cotton. Mom and dad both had town jobs. Grandpa had a bad stroke that year, made a little cart so he could scoot along and pick cotton. That left me, my sister (both younger than 8) and my grandmother to pick a crop of cotton, we had to hire help. I remember we hired 6 or 8 people.

The first day they worked one or more of them put rocks in their sacks and had them weighed. It wasn’t discovered for until a pile of full sacks had built up and were emptied into the wagon. There was no way to tell who had cheated us.

I distinctly remember my grandfather being very upset, but he was a very quiet man, not given to showing emotion.

I remember thinking how smart his response was, now I think it was brilliant! That night he and grandmother sewed together several worn out cotton sacks and a few burlap feed bags.

The next day when a cotton sack was weighed it wasn’t it wasn’t piled up to dumped in the wagon later. Instead it was immediately dumped onto what was effectively a large tarp on the ground. That’s what he had grandma sewed together, a really big piece of cloth. This way no one person could sneak a few rocks passed he or grandmother.

After several sacks were dumped on the tarp he or grandma would have several of hired hands carefully pick up the tarp and roll the cotton into the wagon.

Where there is a will… there is a way. It freed up grandpa and grandma to spend more time picking than guarding the wagon looking for cheats.

 

[Weedygarden]

That is a really special piece.

I have several family antiques, oil lamps, meat grinder, g grandmother's spinning wheel, etc. I have typed up a description of each piece, whose it was, and with the spinning wheel, the gg uncle who made it for his sister. When I am gone, I want the information to go with the piece. It can be so easily lost. You could type up or write the information and put it in a frame. My g grandmother's spinning wheel needs to go to my hometown and given to the historical society where her photo is hung as well as a trunk that g grandfather made for shipping their goods when they were leaving Europe.

 

[joel]

I have always wanted one of them.

 

[phideaux]

@Peanut ,That scale brings back many old cotton field memories for me.

Sorry to say I never grew up big enough to reach the magic number of 200 lbs in a day.

Jim

 

[Peanut]

I think the last year we picked cotton by hand I was 9. That year dad had about 15 acres cleared for another pasture and bought more cattle. We switched to growing corn for livestock feed in the fields.

I can remember growing one more cotton crop after that. My grandfathers brother lived down the road a couple miles. He'd greatly expanded his cotton production and bought a one row cotton picker. Dad sold the cotton crop we grew that year to Uncle X who picked it with his picker. Also, I started working a lot for my other grandpa who was growing 400+ acres of cotton each year, all mechanized with large tractors and pickers.

I can attest to the fact picking cotton with a cotton picker is a lot easier than picking by hand! Instead of picking 100+lbs in a day by hand, a machine could pick a ton in an hour. The days of one man with a bunch of kids trying to grow 25 or 30 acres of cotton were over. One man with a picker could grow several hundred acres of cotton in a year by himself.

Imagine picking all the cotton in this field one handful at a time... Been there, done that, never want to do it again...

 

[Peanut]

I thought I should include this for folks who have never seen a cotton boll. The boll opens when the cotton inside is mature. This one (pic) is just starting to open and is still moist. In a couple days it will have opened fully and dried completely. The woody parts with sharp spikes on the end will dry as hard as nails and rip un-calloused hands open. They aren’t as sharp as a thorn but rock hard. Bloody hands were common at the end of the day.

To pick the cotton, one opened their fingers to fit between the spikes and grabbed the boll in one motion while ripped the cotton from the boll. This was done continually while bent over at the waist. While one hand was picking the other (full) hand was stuffing the cotton into a sack.

A woman or child was expected to pick 100+lbs in a day. Imagine how many handfuls of fluffy white cotton it takes to weigh 100lbs.

Someone who was really good at picking cotton could pick 150-170lbs in a day.

 

[Neb]

Look what I found in the shop this morning… My grandfather’s old “Pea Scale”. The name I knew it by was “Cotton Scale”. Both weights were with it, a 4lb weight and a 1lb weight. I thought it was lost in the ’74 tornado.

Edit to add - The name "P or "Pea" scale came from the french word "Poid" meaning to weigh or weight.

One side of the scale is incremented 0-40. The other side is incremented 0-160. If I remember correctly… using both weights someone could weigh anything that could be hung from the bottom hook from 0 to 199lbs. Dad said it was sold as a 200lb scale.

I used this scale often as a kid, most often when picking cotton. If we hired people to help us pick cotton they were paid by the pounds of cotton they picked each day. They’d pick a sack full, pull it to the cotton wagon where the bag was weighed, recorded by their name. They’d pick up an empty sack and return to work.

A woman and small children usually worked at the wagon. When bags were brought back, they’d be emptied into the wagon. Little kids then “packed down” the cotton by walking on it… Packing cotton could be a lot of fun for a group of little kids. The little kid “status” only lasted until about age 5. Then we picked cotton right beside the adults with kid sized cotton sacks.

Pics 1-3… the scale

Pic 4… My family picking cotton in sacks

Pic 5… a large cotton scale I’ve posted before. It hangs in a local restaurant now. As a teenager I used this very same scale at the cotton gin I worked at. I used it to weigh bales of cotton, usually 400 to 800lbs each. I think the scale is incremented up to 1000lbs.

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I found a similar scale somewhere. Probably was used for coal since I am in coal country.

Ben

 

[Morgan101]

A blast from the past. Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Weedygarden]

We learned interesting songs in elementary school and many of them were songs about life in different parts of the United States. This was one of them:

 

[goshengirl]

I have several family antiques, oil lamps, meat grinder, g grandmother's spinning wheel, etc. I have typed up a description of each piece, whose it was, and with the spinning wheel, the gg uncle who made it for his sister.

I've been meaning to do exactly that - and I wish I'd done it sooner, as I'm already starting to forget some of the back stories. My original thought was to make a scrapbook of items, one page per item with a photo and a story. But now I'm thinking of making digital pages and uploading them to one of those places where you can turn your digital pages into a book, and have it printed. This is something I did for a different project, but it's basically the same idea...