<P> Cotton picking was originally done by hand . In many societies, like America, slave and serf labor was utilized to pick the cotton, increasing the plantation owner's profit margins (See Trans - Atlantic Slave Trade). The first practical cotton picker was invented over a period of years beginning in the late 1920s by John Daniel Rust (1892--1954) with the later help of his brother Mack Rust . Other inventors had tried designs with a barbed spindle to twist cotton fibers onto the spindle and then pull the cotton from the boll, but these early designs were impractical because the spindle became clogged with cotton . Rust determined that a smooth, moist spindle could be used to strip the fibers from the boll without trapping them in the machinery . In 1933 John Rust received his first patent, and eventually, he and his brother owned forty - seven patents on cotton picking machinery . However, during the Great Depression it was difficult to obtain financing to develop their inventions . </P> <P> In 1935 the Rust brothers founded the Rust Cotton Picker Company in Memphis, Tennessee, and on August 31, 1936 demonstrated the Rust picker at the Delta Experiment Station in Stoneville, Mississippi . Although the first Rust picker was not without serious deficiencies, it did pick cotton and the demonstration attracted considerable national press coverage . Nevertheless, the Rust's company did not have the capability of manufacturing cotton pickers in significant quantities . With the success of the Rust picker, other companies redoubled their efforts to produce practical pickers not based on the Rust patents . Then, widespread adoption was delayed by the manufacturing demands of World War II . The International Harvester produced a commercially - successful commercial cotton picker in 1944 . After World War II, the Allis - Chalmers Manufacturing Company manufactured cotton pickers using an improved Rust design . In the following years mechanical pickers were gradually improved and were increasingly adopted by farmers . </P> <P> The introduction of the cotton picker has been cited as a factor in the Second Great Migration . </P> <P> The first pickers were only capable of harvesting one row of cotton at a time, but were still able to replace up to forty hand laborers . The current cotton picker is a self - propelled machine that removes cotton lint and seed (seed - cotton) from the plant at up to six rows at a time . </P>

How was the invention of the mechanical cotton picker helpful in saving cotton as a u.s. crop