1835.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



295 



are intended to produce seed only, and large mills 

 are erecled to crush and press the oil irom the 

 seed. When first pressed the oil is'colorless and 

 insipid, and the avowed object is to adulterate 

 with it, the more costly olive oil. The same cul- 

 tivation prevails in Flanders. 



All plants producing oil exhaust the fertility of 

 countries in which they are extensively grown, 

 and in fact, they will grow thriftily only in the 

 richest soils. At the mention of exhausting 

 plants, the in jmory of every reader promptly re- 

 calls the cotton, now about to derive Irom i;s seed 

 a new recommendation. 



A mill tor preparing the cotton-seed oil, was 

 erected at Petersburg, in Virginia, several years 

 ago, by Follet & Smith, patentees of that part of 

 the apparatus intended to hull the seed. This 

 process was considered indispensable, and the 

 owners of the patent-right set upon it so high a 

 value, as to deter from the general adoption of it. 

 A small establishment on their plan was made in 

 North Carolina, and General D. R. Williams, of 

 Society Hill, in South Carolina, is believed to 

 have erected a mill after Mr. Smith's plans: we 

 ehould be glad to hear the results from our friends 

 in that quarter. In order to bring their mill into 

 prominent notice, Messrs. Follet & Smith obtain- 

 ed from our legislature an act of incorporation lor 

 a Joint Stock Company, to hull cotton-seed and 

 press oil, but the project has not excited attention, 

 and seems likely to rest in the hands of the pa- 

 tentees. 



Launcelot Johnson, of Georgia, invented an in- 

 strument for hulling cotton-seed, which he de- 

 scribes as a truncated cone, furnished with teeth, 

 Avhich revolves in a tub adapted to its form, and 

 also furnished with teeth; the two sets of teeth 

 pass near each other and tear oti the hull, this is 

 separated by a sieve and fan from the kernels, and 

 the kernels are pressed. One thousand pounds of 

 upland cotton will produce twenty-five bushels of 

 seed; three bushels of seed produce one of ker- 

 nels, and one of kernels produce two gallons of 

 oil, or one and a half to two bushels of seed, will 

 produce one gallon of oil. This contrivance has 

 not been patented, but on the contrary, the most 

 liberal offers of its use extended through the pub- 

 lic prints, with the earnest recommendations of 

 the Hon. Mr. Clayton of Georgia. It has the ap- 

 pearance of a cheap, easily managed, but imper- 

 fect engine, and other means supposed to be more 

 efficacious have been adopted. 



Individuals in New York are known to use 

 methods of expressing and purifying cotton-seed 

 oil. And the Messrs. Freemans, of Philadelphia, 

 extract the oil without hulling, and clarity it very 

 perfectly; their methods are, we believe, secrets 

 of trade. 



Messrs. Plummer & Miller erected in 1833, a 

 very extensive mill at Natchez, moved by a pow- 

 erful steam engine, and brought to this enterprise 

 all that capital and organized labor can provide 

 for its perfection, their mill has been in profitable 

 operation ever since, and they have secured the 

 most perfect means of purifying their oil. We 

 learn from a traveller, that they have been joined 

 by James H. Couper, Esq. of the Alatamaha, 

 and to those associates, an act of incorporation 

 was granted during the last year, for half a mil- 

 lion capital, the establishment at Natchez, being 

 rated at $T00,000 in stock. Steamboats ply up 



the Mississippi, and its tributaries for the collec- 

 tion of seed, the rank fertility of the soil makes 

 this of no value as manure; and it is obtained in 

 part, at least, for the labor of its removal. Branch- 

 es of tlte Natehes' mill, have been and will be 

 extended through that country. 



Mr. John Couper, jun. of Georgia, is the pro- 

 prietor o! a mill of considerable extent at JN'o'tile. 

 His oil when purified by processes, lately intro- 

 duced, sells there at 90 to 120 cents a galion. 



Cotton-seed oil is consumed, in painting; in 

 this use, its character is that of an oil drying very 

 slowly — more slowly than linseed-oil, and unless 

 purified, darker in color; in burning, in this, it 

 produces no effluvia and little smoke; in manufac- 

 turing tvoollen clvihs, in this, its value seems yet 

 uncertain, indeed, very doubtful. For machinery, 

 where we should suspect it of too great a tenden- 

 cy to become inspissated, though they say not; 

 ! and in adulterating castor oil, for which it is re- 

 | commended as a mild substitute. 



The meal or oil cake has great value in feeding 

 j stock, even hogs partaking of it without injury, 

 ; the removal of part of the oil, and perhaps, the 

 i hull render it more digestible than before. Ne- 

 groes employed about "the mills frequently mix it 

 with their corn-meal as a savoury ingredient; and 

 we have been assured by an eye witness, that it is 

 a decided improvement. 



It does seem strange, that this state should be 

 the most tardy in turning to account a very valua- 

 ble product. At length, however, if we are not 

 misinformed, one of our skilful and wealthy plan- 

 ters, is about to embark in the business of pres- 

 sing and purifying cotton-seed oil here at home. 

 We solicit from our distant readers intelligence 

 upon this subject. 



CONDUCTOR. 



From the Arcana of Science and Art, for 1835. 

 AFFECTION AND VAST NUMBER OF FISHES. 



But affection is scarcely to be looked for where 

 the offspring is so very numerous as to put all at- 

 ! tempts at even recognising them out of the ques- 

 I tion. How could the fondest mother love 100,000 

 j little ones at once? Yet this number is far ex- 

 I ceeded by some of the matrons of the deep. Pe- 

 | tit found 300,000 in a single carp; Leuwenhoeck, 

 9.000,000 in a single cod; Mr. Harmer found, in a 

 sole, 100,000; in a tench, 300,000; in a mackerel, 

 500,030; and in a flounder. 1,357,000. M. Rous- 

 seau disburdened a pike of 160,000, and a stur- 

 geon of 1,567,000; .while from one of this latter 

 class, some other person (whose name we do not 

 immediately recollect,) got 1 19 pounds weight of 

 eggs, which, at the rate of seven to a grain, would 

 give a total amount of 7,653,200 eggs! If all 

 these came to maturity, the world would be, in a 

 short time, nothing but fish; means, however, am- 

 ply sufficient to keep down this unwelcome supera- 

 bundance, have been provided. Fish themselves, 

 men, birds, other marine animals, to say nothing 

 of the dispersions produced by storms and currents, 

 the destruction consequent on their being thrown 

 on the beech and left there to dry up, all combine 

 to diminish this excessive supply over demand. 

 Yet, on the other hand (so wonderfully are all the 

 contrivances of nature harmonized and balanced,) 



