| The rapid development of mechanized farm technologies in the twentieth century profoundly inpacted the South Plains of Texas. Manufacturers, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station researchers, and farmers regularly had the opportunity to consider new methods or machines for performing the traditional tasks of preparing, planting, cultivating, and harvesting cotton.;The work begins with a review of horse-drawn implements used on the South Plains in 1910. The introduction of the row-crop tractor to the area in the 1930s brought many changes. This section concludes with developments in preparation, planting, and cultivation up to 1990.;The second section describes the evolution of mechanized harvesting from the crude homemade sleds of the 1920s to modern four-row, self-propelled cotton strippers. The introduction of the cotton module system to replace temporary trailer storage for harvested cotton completed the mechanization of cotton farming on the South Plains. |
