COTTON'S OTHER CROP 



meal is pure, forty-three per cent protein stuff, all 

 right," he was told time and again, "but say, it's fitter 

 to feed to a granite crusher than to steers." 



Back Harrell came to his mill with a live, practical 

 research idea: find some means of controlling the con- 

 sistency of cottonseed meal. He had not pondered that 

 problem long before he reached some conclusions. The 

 cattle gobble up the pellet form of concentrated feed 

 most eagerly. Cattlemen like it for its easy handling, 

 no dust and no waste. So if we can make cake soft 

 enough, let's pellet it without any molasses binder. 



Harrell did not have a monopoly on this clever idea. 

 Out in Sweetwater, a fellow Texan, Bob Simmons, was 

 already pelletting cottonseed meal, and there are others 

 who claim this "first." Today pellets are made in many 

 oil mills, and even where they are not produced, the 

 regular cake, thanks to improved pressing techniques, 

 is as crumbly as the crust of good corn pudding. The 

 day of the brickbat meal cake has gone, and with it 

 the easygoing times when the mill operators could shut 

 up shop and go hunting and fishing six months of the 

 year. Now the mill offices and warehouses are open the 

 year 'round to handle local sales of feed products. Fur- 

 thermore, mill owners and managers have had to learn 

 about "white faces" and "creep feeding" and "protein 

 values." A lot of them have taken extension courses in 

 animal husbandry at their state agricultural colleges, 

 and all the way from Alabama and Florida to Oklahoma 



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