90 MAINE) AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I906. 



COTTONSEED MEAL. 



Analyses pages 8^ and 84. 



Cottonseed meal is a by-product from the manufacture of 

 cottonseed oil. After the cotton has been taken from the seed 

 in the cotton gin, the remaining down or " linters " and the hard 

 black seed coats or hulls are removed by machinery. The 

 remainder of the seed is cooked and the oil expressed by high 

 pressure. The resulting cottonseed cake is ground into the 

 "bright, yellow cottonseed meal of commerce. Such a meal made 

 from good seed would carry from 40 to 50 per cent of protein. 

 With improvements in the process of manufacture, it is now pos- 

 sible to extract the oil without making all the separations 

 formerly needed. Hence it has come about that the cottonseed 

 meal now offered in the market is as a rule of lower protein 

 content than was the case tea years ago. 



The shippers of cottonseed meal formerly guaranteed 43 per 

 cent protein and 9 per cent fat. A large part of the cottonseed 

 meal is used for fertilizing purposes and its nitrogen is guaran- 

 teed in the form of ammonia. Prime cottonseed meal from the 

 Atlantic coast states, according to the classification of the Cotton- 

 seed Crushers' Association must carry not less than 7^ per 

 •cent ammonia. Seven and a half per cent ammonia is equivalent 

 to 38.6 per cent protein; hence it follows that cottonseed meal 

 now classed as prime need carry no more than 38.6 per cent 

 protein. As the same association requires that prime cottonseed 

 meal from the Gulf states must carry not less than 8 per cent 

 ammonia, equivalent to 41.2 per cent protein, prime cottonseed 

 meal as now coming into the market is sometimes guaranteed 

 in accordance with the old standard of 43 per cent protein, while 

 that from the Gulf states may be guaranteed 41 per cent protein 

 and that from the South Atlantic states, 38 . 6 per cent protein. 



The hulls and cotton which should be removed from the seed 

 before it is crushed and pressed, have but little feeding value. 

 A little of these materials has always been present in the meal ; 

 with the present processes of manufacture^ there is probably 

 more of these materials present than formerly. The demand 

 from feeders for cottonseed meal has so increased the value of 

 this by-product, that the temptation to include as much of the 

 "hulls and cotton as practicable is great. The processes of man- 



