They do have mechanical harvesters for potatoes. I remember back in the early 70s the farms up in NY had them. As kids, we used to bring the small potatoes home that the machines missed.
Again, it's a See-B.S. story.
I was pretty sure that they did but didn't want to make that comment without being certain.
When I was growing up, kids picked cotton after school and on Saturdays in my neck of the woods. Some schools even canceled school for two weeks in the fall for the height of the picking season. It wasn't just farm kids picking all that cotton either, there was demand for the "townie" kids as well and more than a few adults.
I knew plenty of kids that bought their own clothes and school supplies with the money earned. I started at age 9 doing farm labor of different kinds. You haven't lived until you have ridden a planter all day long at age 9 and eating all that dirt or baling and putting up hay as a young teenager. It didn't kill me and probably contributed to a strong work ethic.
Mechanical cotton pickers replaced the human cotton pickers (and that's a good thing)