454 FIELD CROPS 



USES OF COTTON 



620. The Uses of the Lint. The lint of cotton is the 

 most important of the world's fibers, furnishing clothing for 

 a very large part of all the people. It is the largest item in 

 our world trade, and the production of cotton goods is the 

 largest of manufacturing enterprises. The lint is first spun 

 into thread or yarn and is then woven into all manner of 

 fabrics. Upland cotton is used in the manufacture of a 

 large variety of cloths, either alone or in mixtures with wool, 

 flax, or silk. Thread is largely made from long staple up- 

 land, while Sea Island cotton is used for the finer threads 

 and fabrics. Cotton is- used extensively in explosives. 



621. Uses of the Seed. C'ottonseed was for many years 

 thrown away as worthless or was used only as a fertilizer. 

 During the last forty or fifty years the development of the 

 cottonseed oil industry has furnished a ready market for the 

 seed, and it is now a valuable part of the crop. The whole 

 seed is still used to some extent as a feed or fertilizer, but 

 most of it goes to the oil mills. The products from the seed 

 are numerous, the primary ones being the linters, hulls, and 

 meats. ''Linters" is the short lint, or fuzz, which covers the 

 seed and which is not removed in ginning. This fuzz is 

 removed by a special ginning process and used for cotton 

 batting, carpets, and coarse twine. The next process is to 

 remove the hulls, as these would absorb the oil. These hulls 

 have some value as fuel and fertilizer, and are also used for 

 feeding to cattle. About 850 pounds of hulls is obtained 

 from a ton of whole seed. The meats comprise about 1,100 

 pounds of each ton of seed. 



After the hulls are removed, the meats are cooked for 

 about twenty minutes to melt the oil and to drive off a part 

 of the water. The oil is then extracted under pressure, a ton 

 of seed yielding about 300 pounds, or 40 gallons, of crude oil. 

 A large number of different grades of oil are obtained by 

 various processes of refining and filtering, and from these 



