MY mom and uncles did that. The machines would harvest first, and then people walked the rows with bags getting all that you can see was missed. They got paid by the bag.
The lingo is still around. “Fair to middling” as a synonym for just ok. That was a grade of quality for cotton.
“The lingo is still around. ‘Fair to middling’ as a synonym for just ok. That was a grade of quality for cotton.”
https://www.texasmonthly.com/being-texan/talk-like-a-texan-what-do-we-mean-by-fair-to-middlin/