GOSSYPIUM 



FIBRE 



THE COTTON PLANT 



Hulls and 



Waste 



Stems. 



Paper Material. 



Cotton 

 Cell. 



.Formation. 



Lengths of 

 Standard 



Cell-wall. 



Hulls and Waste Stems. Recently it has been found that the hulls or entire 

 seeds may be utilised in the manufacture of a superior grade of writing paper. 

 The stubble, after the cattle have devoured all the edible portions of the plants 

 left on the removal of the lint crop, may be decorticated and a useful fibre thua 

 obtained. It is stated that 5 tons of stubble give a ton of bark, and that a ton 

 of bark yields 1,500 Ib. of clean fibre that can be even used as a jute substitute. 

 [Of. Dabney, I.e. ; Connell and Carson, Steer-feeding, in U.S. Dept. Agri. Exp. 

 Rec., 1897-8, ix., 269; Lindsey, Holland and Jones, Cotton-seed for Milch Cows, 

 1898-9, x., 679-81; Brooks, Cotton, etc., 1898, 309-54; American Cotton Seed 

 Indust., Board of Trade Journ., 1900, 637 ; Mollison, Textbook Ind., Agri., 1901, i., 

 126-8; Mukerji, Handbook Ind. Agri., 1901, 288-90; Journ. Board Agri., June 

 1901, viii., No. 1, 41-3 ; Blount and Bloxam, Chem. for Engin. and Manuf., 232 ; 

 Mollison, Offtc. Mem. on the Cotton Seed Oil Indust. and Estab. of Cotton Seed Oil 

 Mills in Ind., Agri. Ledg., 1903, No. 9 ; Burtis, Cotton Seed Meal as Pigs' Food, 

 U.S. Dept. Agri. Exper. St. Repts., 1901-2, xiii., 583, 881-2 ; 1903-4. xv., 392-3 ; 

 Egyptian and Ind. Cotton-seed Cake, Journ. Board of Agri., 1904, xi., No. 5, 289-91; 

 Rept. Exper. Farms Canada, 1905, 176 ; Gilchrist on Bombay Rough Cotton- 

 cake, in Board of Trade Journ., 1905, 231 ; Fert. and Feeding Value of Sea Island 

 Cotton Seed, in West Ind. Bull, 1905, v., No. 3, 223-32; Sly, Cotton Seed-oil 

 Indust., Agri. Dept. Cent. Prov. Bull., No. 9 ; Hanausek, Micro. Tech. Prod. 

 (Winton and Barber, transl.), 1907, 361-8.] 



VIII. THE COTTON FIBRE. The cotton fibre is a unicellular hair 

 arising from the fibril layer of the seed-coat. If taken from the seed of a 

 ripe but unopened pod, it will be found to be a straight, flattened, hollow 

 tube, not quite cylindrical but thickest a little below the middle, tapered 

 abruptly below and more gradually to the apex. With growth, the cell 

 wall thickens, becomes thinnest along the centre and thickest towards 

 what may be called the margins. In consequence of this unequal 

 thickening, maturity is marked by the thinnest parts shrinking most and 

 thus causing the cell to become spirally twisted on itself. The cotton 

 cell may hence be spoken of as a fibril from to 2 inches in length, 

 twisted spirally. Wiesner (Die Rohst. des Pflanzenr., 1903, ii., 240-1) gives 

 a series of measurements to show that the broadest section generally 

 falls a little below the middle. It is a noteworthy circumstance, and 

 moreover one of practical importance, that the floss taken from a capsule 

 always consists of fibres of various lengths. Allard (U.S. Dept. Agri. 

 Bureau PI. Indust. Bull., 1907, No. Ill, 13-5) has shown that this is 

 frequently a consequence of certain cells separating from the seeds and 

 uniting with other cells, thus producing the apparent though not real greater 

 length. This discovery may prove of great value. Average Indian floss 

 does not come to three-quarters of an inch in length, while some varieties of 

 Sea Island have a staple two inches long. Evan Leigh ( The Science of 

 Modern Cotton Spinning] gives the following measurements as repre- 

 sentative of the lengths (maximum) of cotton staples : New Orleans, 

 T16 inch ; Sea Island, T80 inch ; Brazilian, T31 inch ; Egyptian, T52 inch ; 

 Indian (indigenous), T02 inch ; Upland American grown in India, 1'21 inch ; 

 Sea Island grown in India, 1-65 inch. [Cf. Watt, I.e., 1907, 25-51.] 



Structurally, the cotton fibre consists of a wall of almost pure cellulose, 

 lined by a delicate layer of protoplasm, which disappears early in the growth 

 of the fibre as the secondary placed deposits increase and a central core of 

 endochrome is formed the colouring material of the cell. The wall 

 constitutes from one-third to two-thirds of the diameter of the cell. 

 Kecently an exceedingly interesting discovery was made by H. de 

 Mosenthal (Journ. Soc. Chem. Indust., March 31, 1904), namely that the 

 cotton cell- wall consists of two layers, termed the outer and inner, which 

 are pierced by minute pores, leading into the lumen of the fibre. These 



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