Shackleford said cotton picking season, which started in the middle of September, has not been very fruitful.

The reasons &045;&045; rain and drought.

Rudy Yates, Auburn County extension Agent with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, also said the rain caused problems for cotton farmers this year.

Yates said that the rain should have come in July and August, but that it never did.

The Rev. S. P. Powell, who is a cotton farmer in Dallas County, said that the drought during the summer and the rain during the picking season

definitely made the quality of the crop much worse this year.