178 THE CHIEF SOUTHERN AGRICULTURAL CROPS 



Cotton is mostly sold by the farmers to local 

 buyers ; each town of any size in the cotton belt 

 being a cotton market. 



Uses. — Cotton is, of course, grown for the lint or 

 fiber which surrounds the seeds. This fiber is more 

 universally useful than any other. Formerly no 

 other part of the plant was utilized, the seed being 

 allowed to go to waste at the gins. Now the manu- 

 facture of oil from the seed has become a very im- 

 portant business and the sale of the seeds adds an 

 item of much profit to the crop. The cake left after 

 pressing the oil from the seed is ground into a meal 

 which furnishes a rich food for cattle and is also ex- 

 tensively used as a fertilizer. 



Its high feeding and manurial value is due to the 

 large percentage of nitrogen which it contains. A 

 good grade of meal will analyze about seven per 

 cent nitrogen. As a feed it is used exclusively for 

 cattle. Horses do not relish it, and it is unsafe to 

 feed it to hogs. Fed in small rations of from one 

 to three pounds per day, in connection with pastur- 

 age, corn stover, or other coarse forage, it forms an 

 excellent maintenance ration for work cattle and 

 young steers. To fattening steers, it may be fed in 

 much larger quantities, but if this heavy feeding is 

 continued for more than three months, injurious re- 

 sults are likely to follow. When used judiciously, it 

 is a most useful food for milch cows. It stimulates 

 the flow of milk and, what is an important quality 

 for Southern butter makers, it gives a butter fat 

 with a markedly higher melting point than that pro- 

 duced by other feeds. Heavy feeding with cotton- 



