FTIU-:R CROPS 383 



feeding value. It is said that English feeders prefer cotton- 

 seed meal made from seed in which the oil is expressed without 

 removing the hull because of the mechanical action of the hulls, 

 such meal being purchased at a less price per ton. When fed 

 to milch cows, cotton-seed meal raises the melting point and 

 decreases the volatile acids of the butter. 



483. Hulls. Under present conditions of manufacture, a ton 

 of cotton seed produces 700 to 900 pounds of hulls. These are 

 used for cattle feeding, when they are considered equal to rather 

 poor hay. They are also burned under the boilers of oil mills 

 and the ash, which is rich in potash, used as a tobacco fertilizer. 

 The hulls are also sometimes used as a fertilizer, but are not 

 considered especially valuable, except for their mechanical 

 effect upon heavy clay soils. 



484. Stalks. The dry matter in stems, leaves, and burs 

 required to grow 500 pounds of cotton will weigh from 2,500 

 to 3,000 pounds. By the time the cotton is picked the leaves, 

 about 20 per cent, of the whole plant, have largely fallen to- 

 gether with some of the burs. In fenced fields cattle are some- 

 times allowed to browse during the winfer. They eat the 

 burs and smaller branches, leaving only the main stems. The 

 cotton plant is not especially palatable to domestic animals, 

 doubtless on account of the so-called resin cavities which play 

 the part of a protective agency. 



When the land is put into cotton again or into some other 

 crop, the stalks are gathered and burned or, what is considered 

 a better practise, they are cut up with a stalk cutter and plowed 

 under. A good quality of fiber has been obtained from the 

 bark. Five tons of stalk will produce one ton of bark, and one 

 ton of bark will produce 1,500 pounds of fiber. A good quality 

 of paper has also been made from the stalks. In neither of 

 these particulars has the plant assumed any commercial im- 

 portance. 



