244 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. [T497, 498, 499, 500 



such lights as science may afford : generations upon generations may experiment, 

 as they have done in Europe — under great disadvantages ; and with no other 

 result than the final and disastrous failure of every one of the empirical systems 

 successively devised, upon insufficient and partial data. 



407. Feeding Cottonseed. — We cannot afford to feed cottonseed to our cattle, 

 unless we keep them at home and collect the manure, to be scrupulously 

 returned to the soil from which it is originally derived. For, not only does 

 the land lose, with the cottonseed, twice the amount of mineral ingredients 

 which a corresponding crop of corn would have withdrawn ; but even in stable 

 manure, the differences in the composition of the food from it is derived, are 

 continued, and hence the manure of corn-fed cattle is best for corn ; that of 

 those eating cottonseed, for cotton. If we apply them to different purposes, 

 we shall have used them to less advantage to ourselves. 



498. Cottonseed- Oil Manufacture. — We cannot afford to sell our cottonseed, 

 for a trifle, to the oil-manufacturer, unless we take back at least the oil-cake, 

 and if possible the hull also. For in a bale of cotton, even the latter, according 

 to determinations I have lately made, carries with it twice the amount of 

 mineral matter that, the lint does ; while in the cake we have a highly concen- 

 trated cotton-manure, containing %%per cent, of the mineral ingredients required 

 for the growth of cotton, and also in a more favorable condition for use as a 

 manure, than is the case with the raw cottonseed. When the latter is used, 

 not only does the hull (which is slow of decay) interfere greatly with the action 

 of the more powerful, and more rapidly decaying kernel, but the oil contained 

 in the latter renders its decay sensibly slower than is the case with the oil-cake 

 meal, in which but a small amount remains. Persons who have used the latter, 

 compare its action, so far as its energy is concerned, to that of guano ; while the 

 effect of the cake-meal is much more lasting, and the latter can be obtained at 

 one-third of the cost of guano — about $20 per ton. 



499. How can the Manufacture of Cottonseed- Oil be afforded ? — Nothing of 

 any consequence is lost to the land in the oil, which is not in the agricultural 

 sense at least, the "fat of the land," as seems to be supposed by many planters ; 

 for it contains only a trifling amount of mineral matter ; and a similar amount 

 of sawdust would be of equal or better effect than the oil. It seems on the 

 contrary, that planters could profitably afford to let the oil-manufacturer have 

 their seed gratuitously, on condition that the cake be returned ; inasmuch as. in 

 the latter condition, their cottonseed will not only be more valuable as a manure, 

 but also in a more convenient form for feed, if desired as such. The cake may 

 be kept, without deterioration, in a dry place, for a great length of time ; and 

 as a feed for milch cows it seems to possess the special advantage of imparting 

 much less of the peculiar flavor to milk and butter, than is the case when raw 

 cottonseed is fed. It would seem as though all these advantages could be 

 realized in a manner profitable to all parties, by the establishment of cottonseed- 

 oil manufactories in all large cotton-growing neighborhoods, or at least in every 

 county ; thus avoiding the expenses of long transportation. 



500. Selling Manure. — European agriculturists consider that any one who 

 even sells the manure made on his land, instead of returning it to the soil, is fast 

 ruining his estate. 



Even thus, cottonseed is the manure which nature furnishes to the cottoD 

 planter, without the necessity of passing it through the system of a troublesome 

 herd of stock, as is the case in Europe. But for the rest, the same principle 

 applies to both, and the cotton planter ought no more to lose, or sell for a trifle, 

 his cottonseed, than the European agriculturist should throw away his stable- 

 manure. Were, the cottonst'ed-oil manufacture (which has been expanding sd 

 rapidly of late) to be the means of withdrawing from the cotton-fields their 

 legitimate return of the mineral ingredients of the seed, its introduction might, 

 I think, be justly qualified as an unmitigated calamity to the South, and to 

 every individual planter. For, the income accruing to the country from thia 



