Ii6 FUNDAMENTALS OF AGRICULTURE. 



will give a bale of 500 pounds of lint. The pressed 

 bales are covered with jute bagging and bound with 

 six steel bands. It takes about seven yards of bagging 

 to cover a bale. Ginning is done at a stipulated price 

 per hundred pounds, or per bale. The gin saws injure 

 the fiber of long staple, and Sea Island is ginned on 

 roller gins. Long staple upland cotton is ginned on 

 saw gins run at a slow speed. 



Cotton Seeds are delivered to the oil mills. A ton 

 of seed will give about 40 gallons of oil, 800 pounds of 

 meal and about the same amount of hulls. From 40 

 to 60 pounds of short lint called " linters " can be re- 

 moved from a ton of seed before they are put in the 

 hullers. There will be from 40 to 80 pounds of dirt 

 and trash. The real value of the seed is determined 

 by the quality of oil it will produce. If the seeds 

 have been kept dry and are well matured they will pro- 

 duce fine oil, which is worth sometimes twice as much 

 as the lower grades secured from damaged seed. The 

 time will soon come when seed will be graded by the 

 quality of oil that can be secured from them, and the 

 farmer will be repaid for taking the best possible care 

 of his seed. 



Cotton-seed meal should contain 41 per cent, pro- 

 tein, 24 to 27 per cent, carbohydrates, 7 to 10 per cent, 

 fat, thus giving one of our most highly concentrated 

 feed stuffs. 



As a fertilizer it should contain 6.58 per cent, nitro- 

 gen, 2.8 per cent, phosphoric acid and 1.5 per cent, 

 potash. 



From these figures one can readily estimate what 

 should be the relative price of seed and meal. 



General Statement. A considerable portion of the 

 cotton crop is produced by negro tenants, who work 

 a single small mule or pony, using only a small turn 

 plow, a harrow and a sweep as implements. The land 

 is poorly prepared and poorly cultivated. No other 

 crop would give returns under the same treatment suf- 

 ficient to supply a people with food and clothing. 



