From 1962-71, UA Agricultural Engineering Professor Xzin McNeal designed, built, tested and developed the nation's first successful pallet trailer system of stacking and storing cotton. His system solved the temporary storage problem created by the rapid adoption of mechanized harvesting, which produced supplies of seed cotton at rates that far exceeded the processing capacity of gins. McNeal's solution: wooden pallets on which seven to eight bales of cotton could be stored in the field and later loaded onto a trailer for transport to the gins. His pallet storage system-now used wherever American cotton is produced-also improved the quality of the fiber following the ginning process.
The Cotton Stacking marker is located near the north entrance to the John A. White Engineering Hall.
Year Placed: 2001