UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



^^"^^-TA. 



BULLETIN No. 948 



Joint Contribution from the Bureau of Markets, GEORGE 

 LIVINGSTON, Chief, and the Bureau of Chemistry, 

 CARL L. ALSBERG, Chief 



Washington, D. C. 



September 10, 1921 



COMPOSITION OF COTTON SEED. 1 



By Charles F. Creswell, formerly Specialist in Marketing Vegetable Oils, Bureau of 

 Markets, and George L. Bed well, Chemist in Charge, Cattle Food Laboratory, 

 Miscellaneous Division, Bureau of Chemistry. 



CONTENTS. 



Sources of information 2 



Seed p reduced and crushed, by States 2 



Yields of oil and meal, by States an d counties. 3 



Yields of oil and meal, by months 3 



Variation of yields of oil and meal on same 



market 3 



Foreign matter 



Importance of analyzing cotton seed. 

 Damaged seed 



I. Cotton seed crushed in different States, 

 by years 



II. Quantity of crushing seed produced. . . 



III. Total products yielded and manufac- 



turing loss per ton of seed 



IV. Oil and merJ yields per ton of seed 



V. Yields of oil and meal, by States, as 



compiled from analyses 



Page. 



VI. Yields of oil and meal, by counties, as 



compiled from analyses 8 



VII. Yields of oil and meal, by months, as 



compiled from analyses 202 



VIII. Variation of yields of oil and meal en 



same market 207 



For crushing purposes cotton seed consists of oil, meal, hulls, 

 linters, and waste matter, the proportion of each varying widely in 

 different sections of production and under different conditions. The 

 composition of seed is influenced by climate, soil, season, fertilizer, 

 and variety, as well as by methods of treatment of the seed before 

 and after the cotton is picked. All of these factors vary so much 

 that seed is of different value not only in widely separated sections 

 and in different years but often in a particular community and at 

 the same time. 



This bulletin is issued for the guidance of producers, dealers, and 

 crushers in order that they may know more nearly the content of the 

 product in which they are dealing and be better able to judge the 

 value and consequently the price that can be paid for seed. It sets 



1 Acknowledgment is made of the assistance rendered and the courtesies extended by chemists and oil 

 milters in making available their original records, on which this report is based and which made this 

 investigation possible. 



29466°— 21— Bull. 948 1 



