A professional who tends variety of machines, such as dryers, cleaners, gin stands, and linters, that dry, clean, and separate cotton lint from seed and waste material. Respnsibilities include:

• Slides hand into seed chutes and removes accumulations of seed.
• Observes saw ribs in gin stand and linter screens to detect clogging.
• Removes cotton manually or using ginstick.
• Opens gas supply valve and pushes alarm switch to warn workers that machinery is starting.
• Pushes switches to start separator, vacuum, and trash fans; seed augers; linters; cleaners; and other auxiliary equipment.
• Turns control knobs on automatic dryers to ignite fire and set drying temperature.
• Ascertains seed-handling instructions from seed tags, pulls ropes to open gates, allowing seeds to be deposited in hoppers according to instructions, and resets automatic seed-weighing counter.
• Pulls ropes to open suction gates and start suction that controls flow of cotton through equipment.
• Listens to sounds of running machinery, observes flow of seeds and cotton, feels cotton sample, and sniffs air to detect equipment malfunction and maladjustment and burning cotton.
• Stops machine and removes obstructions, adjusts dryer temperature, and regulates cotton feed to correct malfunctions, achieve optimum drying of cotton, and maintain maximum ginning capacity of machines.
• Closes suction gates after last bale of order has been ginned.
• Records seed weight and bale weight on report form.
• Periodically replaces worn and defective parts on machines.
• Lubricates motors, bearings, and other friction surfaces.
• May be identified with machines tended or with work performed, such as linting, cleaning, drying, and ginning.