CHAPTER XII 



COTTON BY-PRODUCTS 



SCARCELY more than a quarter of a cen- 

 tury ago cotton seed, the chief by-product 

 of the cotton crop, was considered worth- 

 less except for planting purposes. A common 

 practice among the ginners and large planters 

 was to dump the seed into waste places, into 

 the streams or anywhere to get them out of the 

 way. Contamination of the water supply in 

 the streams and the odor given off by the 

 decomposition of the seed became a nuisance, 

 and in some places steps were taken by the 

 health authorities to prescribe the manner 

 of disposing of them. The planters as well as 

 the country in general little realized the immense 

 value of the seed as a fertilizer and stock feed. 

 History of the Oil Mill. The first manu- 

 facture of cotton seed products on a commercial 

 scale did not begin in the United States but 

 in England where no cotton is grown. In 

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