UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
BULLETIN No. 948 
Joint Contribution from the Bureau of Markets, GEORGE 
LIVINGSTON, Chief, and the Bureau of Chemistry, 
CARL L. ALSBERG, Chief 
Washington, D. C. T September 10, 1921 
COMPOSITION OF COTTON SEED. 1 
By Charles F. Creswell, formerly Specialist in Marketing Vegetable Oils, Bureau of 
Markets, and George L. Bidwell, Chemist in Charge, Cattle Food Laboratory, 
Miscellaneous Division, Bureau of Chemistry. 
CONTENTS. 
Page. | Page. 
Sources of in formation 2 j Foreign matter 4 
Seed p roduced and crushed, by States 2 
Yields of oil and meal, by States and counties. 3 
Yields of oil and meal, by mon ths 3 
Variation of yields of oil and meal on same 
market 3 
I. Cotton seed crushed in different States, 
by years 5 
II. Quantity of crushing seed p roduced ... 5 
III. Total products yielded and manufac- 
turing loss per ton of seed 6 
PV. Oil and meal yields per ton of seed 6 
V. Yields of oil and meal, by States, as 
compiled from analyses 7 
Importance of analyzing cotton seed 4 
Damaged seed 5 
Page. 
VI. Yields of oil and meal, by counties, as 
compiled from analyses 8 
VII. Yields of oil and meal, by months, as 
compiled from analyses 202 
VIII. Variation of yields of oil and meal en 
same market 207 
For crushing purposes cotton seed consists of oil, meal, hulls, 
linters, and waste matter, the proportion of each varying widely in 
different sections of production and under different conditions. The 
composition of seed is influenced by climate, soil, season, fertilizer, 
and variety, as well as by methods of treatment of the seed before 
and after the cotton is picked. All of these factors vary so much 
that seed is of different value not only in widely separated sections 
and in different years but often in a particular community and at 
the same time. 
This bulletin is issued for the guidance of producers, dealers, and 
crushers in order that they may know more nearly the content of the 
product in which they are dealing and be better able to judge the 
value and consequently the price that can be paid for seed. It sets 
1 Acknowledgment is made of the assistance rendered and the courtesies extended by chemists and oil 
millers in making available their original records, on which this report is based and which made this 
investigation possible. 
29466°— 21— Bull. 948 1 
