cotton vs. hurricane ......

... and it seems the agriculture industry in south Georgia was not the winner. I took the photos several weeks ago. Stopping along the highway when I was returning from Valdosta.  Driving south, I saw acres and acres of fully opened bolls of cotton filling the landscape as far as the eye can see. Making for very disconcerting view when the distant fields look as if covered in snow. Your brain knows that is an impossibility in the fall in south Georgia, so you understand your eyes are deceiving you, but still, you know what you are seeing... a really confusing view!

When most of the hard acorn shaped bolls, about two inches in diameter, hanging by stems from a plant about four feet tall are ready for harvest, the boll opens into sections.You can see the divisions if you look closely. Growers contract with crop duster pilots fly over their fields with a defoliant, to cause the green leaves to wither and die, making the cotton fibers easier to harvest. The photos were taken while the plants were still green, before the leaves had died and fallen off. When the leaves are gone, the crop is of greater value, as the end product when baled is much cleaner without trash incorporated into the bale as it goes to market to be turned into cotton fabric.

Gigantic harvesting machines roll through the rows, vacuuming the fibers out, literally sucking the cotton out that is clinging to the now dried plant. Huge bales or containers are taken to the site of a gin that separates the feather-light fibers from seeds, and compacts the cotton into bales that can weigh over five hundred pounds. That is a lot 'o cotton!

What happened here in south Georgia to bankrupt farmers is Hurricane Michael. I thought as I heard weather reports that the pounding rain and resulting flooding would destroy crops. Soybeans and peanuts ready for harvest would be soaked, and possibly standing in water long enough for the entire years' efforts to be for nought. Farmers who had spent month nurturing crops, planting, fertilizing, irrigating would go to bed weeping at the monumental losses incurred by torrential rains.

But cotton? I thought that might survive, sitting in the field waiting to dry out before it could be harvested. The commentator from the state Department of Agriculture reported devastating losses for the southwestern part of the state. Flooding as I had expected, but the wind was just as damaging. Such high velocity wind blowing up from the Gulf of Mexico at hurricane speeds, the cotton fibers were literally blown out of the open boll, and simply vanished. The total value from all the crops lost in the state will be in the billions. Wow! Hard to comprehend.

I was so hopeful when I considered the vast acreage filled with farm land across the south, and knew the damage untimely rains could do to crops those families depended on. Confident those vast fields of cotton could withstand the wet, and would dry out over time, be salvaged while knowing other crops would be entirely lost due to extended rainy period. Never considering the effect gale force winds from a category four hurricane could have on those tiny delicate feather-weight cotton fibers.