All U. S. cotton in commercial production is now harvested by machines of two types, picking and stripping. Machine-picked cotton accounts normally for 70 to 80 percent of the total cotton harvested, while the rest is machine stripped. Machine picking differs from machine stripping mainly in the method by which the cotton lint and seed are removed from the plant. Machine picking is done by a spindle picker machine that selectively separates the exposed seed cotton from the open capsules, or bolls. In contrast, the mechanical stripper removes the entire capsule, with lint plus bract, leaf, and
stem components in the harvested material.