CHAPTER VIII. 
STOPPING THE LEAKS IN COTTON PROFITS 
It is not true, as a distinguished authority has 
charged, that our general methods of growing and 
handling cotton are "as bad as can be;" but it is 
true that they are susceptible of vast improvement, 
and that enormous leaks in cotton profits are yet 
to be stopped. Perhaps the most serious menace 
to cotton farming at this time is the boll weevil, 
but as that subject is reserved for a later chapter, 1 
shall not discuss it here. 
One of the greatest leaks that any industry has 
ever known was the utter waste of cottonseed for a 
hundred years. Cottonseed used to be regarded 
as of so little use, in fact so much in the way, that 
cotton gins within the last two generations have 
been built over streams in order that the seed 
might be easily washed away! In some States 
laws have actually been passed requiring ginners, 
for the sake of the public health, to remove the 
rotting piles of waste seed ! 
$100,000,000 FROM A PRODUCT ONCE THOUGHT 
WORSE THAN WORTHLESS 
Now the raw cottonseed are worth nearly $100, 
000,000, or about one-fifth the value of the cotton 
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