The reason it's so white is that it's been defoliated. They spray a mixture of salt water and something else that has a very distinctive smell, either from a small crop duster or a special tractor-mounted spray rig. That smell always reminds me of fall. The crop dusters are crazy! They fly just a few feet above the cotton and I've even seen them fly under telephone lines before. It's real interesting to watch them when they get to the end of a row and there's tall trees at the end of the field. They'll fly almost to the end, then pull nearly straight up. Then they'll do a sharp banking turn and come right back down almost where they left off and start the next strip. It's pretty amazing to watch. They've got to be really good pilots to pull all that off without getting creamed. Oh, and crazy doesn't hurt either. ;o)
Heh.... those crop dusters have a fun life even if it's not a long one! :~D
Thanks for showing it.... I don't know when I'll ever get to see a field of cotton.
Good pic! We have cotton snow as well! There are cotton fields all around us and the crop dusters use our house to do their tricks around! Being the tallest building for miles, it gets pretty scary! Our friends are cotton farmers and they take the kids up in the cotton pickers etc when they are harvesting. Lots of fun!
Yes, those ag pilots are crazy. Same fall smell here in south Texas --- the cotton is just coming in. You can also see the huge 'loaves' --- must weight 40 tons (guessing) ready to be picked up and scrap cotton all along the roadsides.