Kade McMahon glides atop a field of bleached cumulus tufts. With a joystick, he steers a set of massive yellow teeth that gobble the white like a snowplow. Summer has again overstayed its welcome in northeast Louisiana, but McMahon is sealed from the hot and dusty air, sitting comfortably inside an air-conditioned cotton picker.

It's not a bad gig for the 21-year-old, who got his start mowing grass during summers in high school. Now he operates a machine worth nearly $1 million.

“I can’t tell you how many farmers are jealous we got Kade,” said Marshall Hardwick, his boss. “Locally grown, hardworking ... they just don’t exist anymore, it seems like.”

In October, Tensas Parish — long the state’s top cotton producer — can look more like an early winter in New Hampshire, as white flakes dus

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