On the blackland prairie of Texas, in the summer of 1952, it was cotton-picking time in Collin County. Merchants in small towns and country stores displayed cotton sacks for sale. Made of canvas, some as long as 10 feet, they all had a strap that fit over the pickers shoulder and a small metal ring at the opposite end.
Long rows of dark green plants stood close together in fields all over the county. The plants had been growing since early spring. Green bolls
