152 KNAPP METHOD OF GROWING COTTON 



1870 that country had an annual crush of 

 about 200,000 tons and was leading the world 

 in the manufacture of cotton seed products. 

 All of this supply had to be shipped across the 

 ocean and there was much loss from the seed 

 heating and decomposing in transit; so it was 

 not long before it was found necessary to 

 move the manufacturing industry nearer to 

 the field of production. 



The increased uses made of the seed prod- 

 ucts and the difficulty of getting the seed to 

 the foreign mills in good shape led to the 

 establishment of a great milling industry in the 

 United States. The annual consumption by 

 American oil mills is now more than 4,000,000 

 tons. The first cotton seed oil mills were built 

 in the United States in 1840. As late as 1860 

 there were only seven. In 1910 this number 

 had been increased to 841. The number of 

 laborers employed in oil mills increased from 

 12,600 in 1899 to more than 22,000 in 1910. 

 The total value of the seed delivered at the 

 mills in 1910 was about $142,710,000, an increase 

 of more than $100,000,000 over 1899. In 1910 

 the average cost per ton of seed was $27.40, 

 more than 2 times that of 1899. The total 



