541 



Food ingredients m the cotton plant and its parts. 



The following table shows the composition of the plant after picking, 

 both when gathered "as soon after picking as iDossible" and "late in 

 the season after the last picking was over," as compared with that of 

 oat straw and corn stover (analyses from other sources). 



Cotton plant after picking as compared with oat straw and corn stover. 



* North Carolina Station Annual Keport for 1882. 



The agreement between the two samples of the plaut after picking is quite close — 

 closer in fact than could have been expected. The North Carolina sample shows, 

 however, higher value as a food. As cotton is not generally picked out until late iu 

 December, it would be impossible to cut the crop sooner; consequently there would 

 only remain the stalks with part of the bolls, some of them unopened. The leaves 

 and part of the bolls would drop off earlier iu the fall. The figures in the first col- 

 umn will approximately represent the plant at this stage. But even taken at so late 

 a period, the value of the cotton plant ground up as a feeding stuff agrees closely with 

 the values of oat straw and corn stover. * * * The most serious objection to its 

 use as a feeding stuff would be the cost of gathering and grinding, for unless ground 

 and mixed with meal or grain of some kind it would be almost valueless. 



The table below shows the composition of the kernels and hulls of the 

 seed carefully separated by hand, taken from the Annual Report of the 

 North Carolina Station for 1882, and of the commercial cotton-seed meal 

 and hulls. 



