268 SOUTHERN FIELD CROPS 



For example, 1000 pounds of seed, which is approxi- 

 mately the amount usually accompanying one 500-pound 

 bale of lint, contains about 31 pounds of nitrogen, 13 

 pounds of phosphoric acid, and 12 pounds of potash. 

 To replace this quantity of precious plant-food would 

 require commercial fertilizers costing about $6.25. The 

 draft on the fertility of the land made by other parts of 

 the plant are indicated in later paragraphs of this book. 



243. Composition of cotton products. The most 

 valuable products of the cotton plant, next to the lint, are 

 those made from the seed. In round numbers there are 

 produced annually in the United States half as many mil- 

 lion tons of seed as million bales of cotton. More than 

 two thirds of the seed is used by the oil mills and less than 

 one tenth for planting ; the remainder is either fed directly 

 as seed to live-stock, or else employed as fertilizer. The 

 oil in the seed has no fertilizing value ; hence more wealth 

 is created when the oil mills use the seed than when the 

 seeds are employed as fertilizer, provided the farmer 

 buys enough cotton-seed meal or other forms of commercial 

 fertilizer to restore to his land the plant-food removed in 

 the seed. At prices prevailing in recent years, a dollar 

 buys a larger amount of plant-food in the form of cotton- 

 seed meal than if invested in cotton seed. 



A ton of cotton seed ordinarily produces approximately the 

 following results at the oil mills : 



POUNDS 



Oil (38 to 45 gallons), average about 300 



Cotton-seed meal, average about 750 



Cotton-seed hulls, average about 800 



Linters, average about 30 



Waste, sand, trash, and evaporation, average about . . 120 



Total 2000 



