254 



COTTON 



COTTON 



is used to some extent for making bagging, coarse 

 carpets and the like ; but by far the most valuable 

 by-products come from the seeds. For a long time 

 growers either threw them into a stream or dis- 

 posed of them in some other convenient way, as 

 they were not regarded as having any value. 

 Later they were used for manure ; finally the value 

 of their oil was discovered, and a great industry 

 has been developed in extracting and refining it. 

 About 7 per cent of the seeds produced are used 

 for planting, a large quantity are still used for 

 manure, but the bulk of them are run through the 

 oil mills. The quantity thus consumed from the 

 crop of 1904 was 4,032,375 tons, or 63.2 per cent 

 of the total supply. The average price per ton 

 paid to growers for them this season (1904) was 

 $14.15. At this rate the value of the entire crop 

 of seed was over $90,000,000. 



When the seeds reach the oil mills they are 

 reginned for the purpose of removing the fuzz 

 which covers them. This fuzz is called linters. It 

 amounts to about thirty pounds per ton of seed and 

 is used in upholstering, making cheap felts, and 

 the like. The seeds are then run through a machine 

 which separates the hulls from the kernels. The 

 hulls are used very largely for cattle food ; how- 

 ever, they have some other minor uses. The ker- 

 nels, "meats," are steamed or cooked and- then 

 placed in presses, where they are subjected to an 

 enormous pressure for the purpose of extracting 

 the oil. The residue is called oil cake. It is ground 

 into meal and used as a concentrated cattle food 

 and as a fertilizer. A ton of seed yields thirty- 

 eight to forty-five gallons of crude oil, which is 

 refined in mills especially constructed for this 

 purpose. This oil has a great variety of uses — 

 the more refined part being used for human food 



/0 



Fig. 364. Product of select plant (left) and ordinary plant 

 (right) from same field. Left, seed 632 grams, lint 314 

 grams; right, seed 113 grams, lint 51 grams. 



under various names, while the less refined part is 

 used for soap stocks and in various other manu- 

 facturing processes. 



Cotton breeding. 



Breeding is one of the important factors in the 

 production of a good cotton crop, which is almost 

 wholly neglected. The great majority of cotton- 

 planters ordinarily use any cotton seed without 

 regard to variety and without practicing any 



selection. On the seed depends the crop, and it 

 is just as important to use good seed as it is 

 to cultivate and manure the crop. The results 

 of careful experiments have shown th9,t by sys- 

 tematically selecting and improving the seed, the 

 yield can be greatly increased with but little extra 



Fig. 365. 



Desirable and undesirable types of Jones 

 improved cotton. 



cost (Fig. 364). In any general field crop where the 

 margin of profit is so slight as in cotton, it 

 behooves the grower to use every possible method 

 to increase the profit, and no cotton-grower can 

 afford to neglect the proper selection of the seed 

 which he expects to plant. Every cotton-grower, 

 in attempting to improve his crop, should test 

 comparatively a number of the standard varieties 

 in order to determine what variety or varieties do 

 the best under the local conditions presented on 

 his plantation. This test of varieties is important, 

 and should precede any work of breeding, as it is 

 important to start the breeding with the best 

 available foundation stock. 



How to improve cotton by seleetion. — Selection of 

 type. — After having tested varieties and deter- 

 mined in general what variety is best suited to 

 the local conditions, grow a large field of this 

 variety on soil which is as uniform throughout 

 as can be selected. Give this field ordinary culti- 

 vation. The next step is to determine what type 

 of plant of this variety is the best. Every grower 

 knows a good cotton plant. Ordinarily, plants 

 should be selected of medium height and stocky, 

 with the habit of putting on numerous bolls early 

 in the season on the lower branches (Pig. 365). A 

 careful observation of the plants in the field will 

 enable the grower easily to determine the best 

 type of plant, which gives the most cotton in 

 general earliest in the season. Earliness in almost 

 all cases is an important point, and in sections 

 threatened by the boll-weevil and boll-worm, 

 earliness of maturity should always enter into the 

 consideration of the type of plants selected. 



Seleetion of plants. — After having determined 

 the type of plant which is thought to be most 

 desirable, the next process is to make the actual 

 selection of plants. The selection should be made 

 just before the first picking. Delay the first pick- 

 ing until the cotton is pretty well open and needs 

 picking rather badly. Then go over the field row 

 by row, walking slowly along each row and letting 

 the eye have sufiicient time to size up each plant. 

 The great majority of the plants can be thrown 



