8 



The seed of the cotton plant as it comes from the gin where the 

 cotton fiber has been removed, is still covered with a coat of white 

 down technically known as " linters." This being removed, the seed 

 itself appears black in color and irregular egg-shape in form. The 

 thick, hard, black seed coat or hull, is filled with the coiled embryo, 

 (meat) which contains a large number of oil cells. Machines have 

 been invented to remove the hull. The meat is cooked in large iron 

 kettles, and while still hot is wrapped in hair cloth, and subjected to 

 a pressure of 3000 to 4000 pounds to the square inch, to remove as 

 much of the oil as possible. The pressed cottonseed cake when 

 cracked and ground results in the bright yellow decorticated cotton- 

 seed meal of commerce. A ton of seed furnishes about 800 pounds 

 of meal. Sometimes a considerable amount of hull is ground line 

 and mixed with the meal, producing a dark colored article, having 

 a feeding value of about one-half the prime material. 



LINSEED MEALS. 



o. 



Figure IL Common flax (Linum usitatissimum). a. Seed magnified six times, b. 

 Longitudinal section, showing embryo embedded in the endosperm. 



The drawings for Figs. L and II. from Hicks, in Year Book 1895, Department of 

 Agriculture. 



Linseed meal is the ground residue from the flaxseed, 

 after the oil has been removed. The larger part of the flaxseed 

 used in this country is grown in North and South Dakota and Min- 

 nesota. The seeds of the flax plant are flattened, elliptical oval, 

 pointed at the lower end, and of a brown color. They contain in 

 their natural state from 30 to 35 per cent of oil. Twenty to 28 per 

 cent of the oil of the seed is removed by warm pressure and seven 

 per cent remains in the pressed residue. This oil is known as lin- 



