Abstract: 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.