A History of Crosby County 1876-1977 Page: 60
608 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this book.
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AMERICAN COTTON GROWERS
CROSBYTON GIN DIVISIONFaced with an impossible task of updating
antiqued equipment to meet stringent O.S.H.A.
and E.P.A. standards, the Board of Directors of
the Crosbyton Farmers Cooperative Gin began
an intense study of options concerning their cot-
ton processing operation.
By the end of the 1972 season, it had become
apparent that the expansion project which had
been in the minds of the patrons for several
years would have to be considered. One hun-
dred twenty (120) acres of land north of the City
limits of Crosbyton, Tex. had been purchased
five years earlier.
Whether to move the equipment already
owned, rebuild, and update the plant or to plan
an all new facility was taken under considera-
tion.
Extensive investigation into various process-
ing plants in both the Rio Grande Valley of Texas
and the Delta Cotton Country of Tennessee,
Mississippi, and Missouri were made by seven
members of the Board of Directors of the Cros-
byton Farmers Cooperative Gin.
A new concept of cotton processing evolved
out of these investigations which was exciting
and intriguing to these men who were very well
versed in the mechanics of the cotton industry.
Working with the U.S.D.A. and Lumas Indus-
tries of Georgia, a feasibility study was made on
a new and more efficient approach to cottonprocessing. It became apparent that the effec-
tiveness of the concept and the greatest chance
for monetary gain, could only be realized if a
minimum of 35,000 acres were committed to
this new cotton processing plant.
Within a proximity of 20 miles, there were
three area cooperatives whose patrons held
enough acres to make the project feasible. The
Directors of the Wake Cotton Cooperative and
the McAdoo Cotton Cooperative were briefed on
the feasibility of the project as proposed by Dr.
James E. Haskell, agricultural economist with
the United States Department of Agriculture.
These far-sighted men, each leaders in their
own rural communities, met with their constitu-
ents to discuss the problems they were facing
and introduced them to the idea which could
probably solve the gigantic problems being
faced individually by the whole cotton industry.
These producers, who were convinced that
this new concept in cotton processing would not
only benefit the farmers of these three communi-
ties but the whole South Plains of Texas, took
the initiative in consolidating their acreage and
resources to build the most unique cotton proc-
essing plant in America and the largest single
plant in the known world. (1977)
The revolutionary idea that emerged from this
joining of minds and resources was based on
the association handling the crop from the turn-row to the market. Heretofore, the producer had
delivered the seed cotton to the gin to be proc-
essed. Processing included removing the burr,
separating the seed from the lint, delivering the
cotton seed to the oil mill, and the cotton bale to
the compress. Ordinarily the bales had to be
recompressed to a greater density and a smaller
size before the trade (merchants, shippers, and
spinners) would accept them. The producer
then was left to his own means to market his cot-
ton lint as best he could.
The new concept included the producer har-
vesting his seed cotton and field storing it in
either ricks or modules. The association would
pick the cotton up on the turn-row and transport
the cotton to the plant in truck containers which
hold ten bales of cotton per load, thus saving the
producer the cost of equipment investment and
maintaining trailers, trucks, and personnel to
transport the crop from the field to the plant.
This procedure also frees the producer to con-
centrate on preparation for his next crop.
Instead of a suction to empty the truck trailers,
a dump was engineered so that the ten bales
could be dumped and blended into an unprece-
dented uniformity of lint fibers.
Conventional but modern machinery for burr
and seed removal were installed as well as a uni-
versal density press which eliminated later
recompression. The compressed bale is strap-First cotton gin built in Crosby County by C.B.
Livestock Company in 1905, erected on the
Crosbyton townsite.
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Crosby County Pioneer Museum. A History of Crosby County 1876-1977, book, 1978; Crosby County, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth91041/m1/64/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .