an apparatus and method for recovering waste cotton from cotton fields , comprising a vehicle adapted to be attached to the rear of a tractor , or to a cotton harvesting machine , and moved along the rows and furrows previously harvested ; the machine comprises a plurality of pivoted frames containing adjustable stops and rotatable shafts ; a rotary cylinder having collector teeth attached on its periphery ; a plurality of yoke arms mounted upon the cylinder shaft containing two sets or gangs of free rolling ground wheels with cotton pick - up teeth attached on their peripheries . when the machine is moved forward , with the ground wheels rolling on the ground in the bottom and sides of the furrows , the cotton is impaled on the teeth of said wheels . the cotton is rotated upward on the teeth of the ground wheels , to a point where the teeth of the rotating cylinder removes the cotton from the teeth of the ground wheels ; the upward rotation of the cylinder passes the cotton between a series of bars and the cylinder , thus extracting the extraneous unwanted materials from the cotton ; the impaled cotton moves upward on the cylinder , is then removed by a revolving cylindrical brush into conveyors and is transported to the recovery machine &# 39 ; s own storage container which is mounted on its frame .