Last time I saw Darkies picking cotton by hand was on a bus trip through Central Arkansas in 1968. All other places use mechanical pickers.
On a trip through Arkansas last October I noticed cotton was being baled just like round hay bails covered with plastic wrap.
Cotton harvesters in the 60’s were expensive and didn’t separate the cotton seeds or bale the cotton. They just picked the bolls and threw them in a huge cage. Now they can do both, separate the seeds (for oil and animal feed) and bale the cotton ready for shipping, and do up to eight rows at a time...........