'258 THE FEEDING OF ANIMALS 



which constitute from 45 to 50 per cent of the delinted 

 seeds, are known in commerce as cottonseed hulls, and 

 are used to some extent as a feeding-stuif. They are 

 characterized by a very low proportion of protein and a 

 very high content of fiber. Twenty-two analyses show a 

 range of protein from 1.6 to 4.4 per cent, and of fiber 

 from 35.7 to 66.9 per cent. Such material as this belongs 

 with the very lowest grade of coarse fodder, as both 

 composition and experience demonstrate. 



351. Extraction of oil from the cottonseed kernels. — 

 The hulless kernels make up from 50 to 55 per cent of 

 the delinted seed, and from those the oil is obtained. 

 These meats are first cooked twenty or thirty minutes 

 in large, steam-jacketed kettles in order to drive off the 

 water and render the oil more fluid, and then after being 

 formed into cakes in wire cloths, they are submitted to a 

 pressure of 3,000 to 4,000 pounds to the square inch. 

 This removes at least four-fifths of the oil and leaves the 

 cakes very solid, which after drying are cracked and 

 ground into a fine meal, known in commerce as cotton- 

 seed meal. Formerly a ton of ginned seed yielded the 

 following quantities of the different parts: 



Pounds 



Linters 20 



Hulls 891 



Cake or meal 800 



Crude oil . , 289 



Since the above estimate was prepared the manufac- 

 turing process has been so improved that from forty 

 to forty-five gallons of oil are now obtained from a ton 

 of seed, giving a correspondingly smaller amount of cake. 

 Cottonseed meal at the present time is less rich in oil 

 than was the case a few years ago. 



