COTTON'S OTHER CROP 



a method of refining crude cottonseed oil by whizzing it 

 in a centrifugal machine, a process that recovers con- 

 siderably more refined oil than was formerly possible 

 and which today is employed by practically every 

 refiner. 



The pattern of the cottonseed-crushing industry is 

 familiar enough in this country: a few large corpora- 

 tions and many small companies which enjoy peculiar 

 advantages so that they are by no means at the mercy 

 of their big competitors. But, from the point of view 

 of the small crusher, this familiar competitive situation 

 has one distinctive and disconcerting peculiarity. None 

 of the big boys is really in the cottonseed business at 

 all. All are primarily big consumers of cottonseed prod- 

 ucts who operate oil mills first to protect their raw 

 material position. As the small mill owner sees it, they 

 seem to have sketchy ideas about the costs and profits 

 of these operations. 



"They wrap up their losses in a bullhide," is how 

 "Togie" Harrell explained it to me, "or drown them in 

 a can of salad oil, or tuck them into a cake of soap. 

 If the small mill man sells his oil and meal as raw 

 materials, he is caught naked in a blizzard. He must 

 protect himself by finding something that he can make 

 out of his cottonseed products and sell it himself so as 

 to earn a, manufacturing profit on his own raw ma- 

 terials." 



Twenty years ago Fred Pendleton had come to a 

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