184 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
SPURRY-LUPIN-COTTON SEED DIE AND 
Cake. 
Editor Southern Cultivator — Will you please be so 
good as to answer the following questions in the Southern 
Cultivator : 
Where can Spurry and white Lupin seed be obtained '1 
What is Cotton seed Oil worth per gallon 1 
It is necessary to know what the oil is worth to know 
what the seed are worth. Boussingault says that 32 lbs. 
of oil cake from cotton seed is worth for manure as much 
as 31 1-2 lbs. guano. Ten grains of cotton seed, after 
being hulled, leaves 6 grains of seed and 4 grains of hull. 
Now, as four bushels of cotton seed make 100 lbs , ac- 
cording to some person’s statement— but 108 according to 
my measure and weight — but say 100 lbs. ; then take 40 
lbs. from the 100 lbs. for hull, and 20 lbs. for oil, and we 
have 40 lbs. left, or 10 lbs. of oil cake to the bushel. 
Now if guano is worth S60 per ton, 32 lbs. of cotton oil 
seed are worth the same, or is equivalent to 31 1-2 lbs. of 
guano. How much ought cotton seed, including the oil, 
to be worth per bushel 1 According to Boussingault 
guano ’contains 6.20 of nitrogen. Jackson states cotton 
seed to contain upwards of 7.0 per cent. — as I have not 
Jackson’s analyses I cannot state the precise amount. 
Please give Jackson’s analyses of cotton seed in your 
next number. You will find it in the Patent Office Report 
for 1855, I think. 
Yours respec fully, 
J. M. Meriwather. 
Ml. Elba, Ark.f April, 1859. 
Reply.— Spurry furnishes a very nutritious food for 
cattle and sheep, and is much cultivated in Flanders and 
other portions of Europe, but the yield per acre is small, 
and we have in this country many forage plants superior 
to it. The wild Lupin is much used in Italy for the reno- 
vation of the soil, but we do not think it any respect bet- 
ter than our common Cow Pea. The seeds of these 
plants may be imported from France for you by our cor- 
respondent. Mr. V. La Taste, of this city ; or it is possi- 
ble that they can be furnished by the large seed dealers 
of the North. We do not know the price of cotton seed 
oil. Will some of our New Orleans correspondents in- 
form US'? The analysis of Professor Jackson, we give 
below, from Patent Office Report of 1855, pages 236-7-8. 
Notice, particularly the last sentence of Prof. Jackson’s 
report, which we have italicised : 
Chemical Examination of the Oil-Cake. — Lmseed 
oil cake is well known, both in Europe and in this coun- 
try, as valuable food for cattle, and as an excellent fer- 
tilizer, worth from S40 to S45 per ton, for the latter pur- 
pose. On examining rpy cotton seed oil cake, I found it 
possessed a sweet and agreeable flavor, and was much 
more pure and clean than linseed oil-cake. One hundred 
grains of the seed leave 60 grains of oil cake. Tins cake, 
examined for sugar, was found to contain 1.1 gruns, and 
for gum, 35 grains were obtained. Iodine gave no proof 
of the existence of any starch in cotton-seed, nor in the 
oil- cake. Alcohol dissolves out the sugar, which is like 
that obtained from raisins, and is grape-sugar. Boiling 
water dissolves the guin, and becomes very mucilaginous. 
The gum is recipitable from the wat< r, by means of 
pure alcohol. 
Ultimate Analysis. — Cottop-seed being quite peculiar 
in its nature and character, I was disposed to investigate 
the elementary constitution of the oil cake, and having, 
with great care, made the oriranic analy.-is and verified it 
by repetition of the process, I obtained the following re- 
sults in per-centage : 
Carbon 
37.740 
Oxygen 
39.663 
Nitrogen 
7.753 
Hydrogen. 
5.869 
Salts (inorganic) 
8.960 
99.985 
These salts were obtained by the combustion of a 
separate portion of the same cake. 
Wishing to determine the nature and chemical com- 
position of the salts contained in the seed, I burned 300 
grains of them to ashes, in a platinum crucible, and ob- 
tained 16 5 grrffhs of ashes, which yielded alkaline salts, 
soluble in a small quantify of water, and other matters, 
which I dissolved in acids. Of the 16.5 grains of ashes, I 
found 9.13 grains consisted of phosphate of lime. 
On separation of the various salts, and reducing them 
to their ratios, for 100 grains of the oil-cake, I found the 
results to be as follows : 
Alkaline salts, soluble in water 0.13 
Phosphate of lime 3.04 
Potash 0.46 
Soda 0 53 
Phosphoric acid, with traces of sulphuric 
acid and chlorine 0.81 
Silica and oxides of iron and manganese. . .0.18 
5.15 
Loss 0 35 
5 50 
The whole amount of phosphoric acid present was 
2,456, and of lime, 1.34 per cent. The excess of phos- 
phoric acid, beyond that required for the saturation of 
the lime, was combined with the alkalies, soda, and pot- 
ash. The chlorine and sulphuric acid existed in un- 
weighable traces, in so small a quantity of ashes. 
The foregoing analyses of cotton-seed justify and ex- 
plain the use made of them by Southern planters, in pre- 
paring the soil with the rotted seeds, as a special manure 
for Indian corn, which draws so largely on the soil for 
phosphates. It will also be seen that, since the cotton-, 
seed oil-cake contains nearly eight per cent of nitrogen, 
and nearly six per cent, of hydrogen, the elements of 
ammonia are present in sufficient quanties to form 
about 10 per cent, of ammonia, a powerful stimulant 
to vegetation, and a .solvent and carrier of humus 
into th^ir circulation. The carbon is more than suffi- 
cent to take up all the oxygen in the formation of 
carbonic acid, another active fertilizer; and the excess 
of carbonaceous matter will remain asd form humus, or 
vegetable mould, which the alkalies, soda, potash, and 
ammonia will, in part, dissolve and carry into the circu- 
lation of plants, which possess the power of approximating 
and converting it into their tissues. The phosphates go 
ultimately to the seeds, and, in Indian corn, and in 
wheat, concentrate wholly about the germs, in their mu- 
cilage or “ chits.” Thus it is proved that every ingredient 
of cotton-seed cake acts as a nutriment to vegetation. 
“ Agriculture,” says Socrates, “ is an employ- 
ment the most worthy the application of man, the most 
ancient and the most suitable to his nature; it is the com- 
mon nurse of all persons, in every age and condition of • 
life; it is the source of health, strength, plenty and riches; 
and of a thousand sober delights and honest pleasures.” 
|^“Modesty is more becoming, a^d always esteemed 
more valuable than beauty. Beauty perishes, but modesty, 
real mode.'jiy, never decays. 
