Modern farming methods have brought into play the use of defoliants to knock the leaves off of plants before the use of harvesting machines to harvest the crops produced by the plants involved. The advent of the cotton-picking machine in particular has brought on a large increase in the use of defoliants. One of the most popular groups of these is the chlorate defoliants. These are sprayed on the cotton plants just before harvest in order that the leaves will fall off of the plants and make it easier for the machines to pick the cotton and produce a cleaner product free of chaff from cotton leaves and stems