1882.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
205 
feelings of the horses. It is not the well fed 
horse, .only, that does the most work, and 
keeps in the best condition; he must also 
have a kind master, and be treated with 
a just regard for equine sensibility. 
Handy Boxes for the Barn. 
The next thing to a good basket about the 
.bam is a properly made box, and for many 
purposes boxes are 
preferable. They are 
cheaper and will 
last a long time. 
Figure 1 represents 
a box holding about 
one bushel. Strips 
Fig. 1.— barn box. are nailed upon two 
sides near the top, 
and an oval piece cut out from the under 
side at the center for handles. Two triangu¬ 
lar strips, p, p, are nailed over two upper 
corners for guiding the contents of the box 
when emptying them into a bag out of a 
smaller vessel. In¬ 
stead of the triangu¬ 
lar corner pieces, a 
thin board (figure 
2, li), with an oval 
opening near the 
center, serves the 
same purpose. Box¬ 
es like this made 
from light, tough wood, will last a long time, 
and are a great convenience about the bam, 
com crib, etc. L. D. S. 
An Important Southern Product. 
A Former Waste of @38,000,000, to be Util¬ 
ized—Cotton Seed—What is being Done, 
BY HON. J. S. NEWMAN, OF GEORGIA STATE AGRICULTURAL 
DEPARTMENT. 
After numerous experiments and failures, 
extending back to 1834, the use of Cotton 
Seed for various purposes, is becoming an 
important industry. The seed is now pur¬ 
chased by the mills at 15 cents per bushel, or 
$10 per ton. The first process in their man¬ 
ipulation cleans them of trash, sand, motes, 
etc.; after this they are passed through a 
gin, made for the purpose, by which they are 
stripped of the lint, that was left on them 
by the plantation gin. An average of 22 lbs. 
of short lint, called “linters,” is obtained 
from a ton of seed. This sells at from 6'/ a c. 
to 7c. per lb., and is used in the manufacture 
of cotton batting. The seeds then go to the 
hullers, where they are decorticated, and the 
kernels separated from the hulls. The lat¬ 
ter form about one-half of the seed by weight. 
They are used as fuel for the engines which 
furnish the power for the mills, and produce 
an ash which is very rich in potash, yielding, 
according to recent analysis, as high as 22 
per cent of potash. The ashes sell at the 
mills at $12 per ton. The hulls from a ton 
of seed yield only 35 lbs. of ashes, which, 
owing to the complete combustion and the 
great draft of the furnaces, are very highly 
concentrated. The kernels, after being 
steamed, - are put into hair-cloth sacks in 
which they go to the boxes of the hydraulic 
press, where the oil is extracted, yielding 
35 gallons or 262‘/ 2 lbs. of crude oil per ton 
(average). This oil sells at the mills at 35c. 
per gallon. In the process of refining it loses 
18 per cent by weight and sells when refined 
at 55c. to 60c. per gallon. 
A ton of seed yields from 700 to 750 lbs. of 
oil cake, which sells at the mills at $20 per 
ton. When exported it is generally shipped 
as cake, but for home consumption is first 
ground and sold as meal. The present an¬ 
nual consumption of cotton seed by oil mills 
is only 350,000 tons, or an average of a little 
more than 6,000 tons per annum to the mill. 
There are 57 mills, distributed as follows :— 
Tennessee 10, Miss. 9, Louisiana 9, Texas 9, 
Ark. 8, Ala. 6, Ga. 2, Mo. 2, S. C. 1, and Ills. 
1. There will be many more all over the 
South ready for the next crop of seed. 
The demand for the products of the mills is 
rapidly increasing and widening in its scope. 
When thoroughly refined, cotton seed oil is not 
easily distinguished from the finest olive oil, 
and I venture the assertion that nine-tenths 
of the “Olive ” Oil sold in the United States is 
made from cotton seed. At first it was sent 
to the continent of Europe to be refined, 
labelled, and returned or distributed to the 
trade of the world. The voyage across the 
Atlantic is no longer necessary for its con¬ 
version into the finest “Olive” Oil. 
The cake finds a ready sale both in this 
country and Europe as food for live stock. 
It is being largely used also as a source of 
Ammonia in commercial fertilizers, and af¬ 
fords the best source available, having from 
7 to 8 per cent of Ammonia, besides from iy 2 
to 2 per cent of Potash, and from 2‘/ 2 to 3 per 
cent of Phosphoric Acid. In 1880, according 
to the statistical report of the U. S. Treasury 
Department, 6,997,796 gallons of cotton seed 
oil were exported from the United States. 
The same year 453,023,225 lbs. of oil cake and 
12,142,137 lbs. of cotton seed were exported. 
The home demand, however, is so rapidly 
increasing that it is probable that when the 
great value of these products is more fully 
appreciated there will be little surplus for ex¬ 
port. The partially refined oil, having a por¬ 
tion of its stearine and margarine retained, 
is very rapidly supplanting lard in its uses 
for culinary purposes. Six months ago, with 
rare exceptions, it was not offered for sale by 
the family grocers of Atlanta ; now nearly all 
of them not only keep it but find a ready sale 
for it to their customers generally. After 
using it for three months, I am convinced 
that it is destined to expel lard from the 
tables of the people of the South, and to be 
used to a large extent elsewhere. It can be 
used in the preparation of any dish for which 
lard has been hitherto used, and for some 
purposes such as frying fish, chicken, etc., is 
far superior to lard. 
The Oil Worthless as a Fertilizer. 
The oil is not only entirely valuless as a 
fertilizer, but is deleterious to the seed, when 
used for that purpose, by delaying decom¬ 
position and hence retarding their availability 
to the plant. The cotton seed oil-cake meal 
is in better form for use by the farmer than 
the whole seed, whether he feeds it to stock, 
manipulates it with stable manure, or super¬ 
phosphate, or both, or applies it directly to 
the soil as a fertilizer. By the manufacture 
of oil, therefore, that which is entirely wasted 
when the whole seeds are used as manure, 
becomes more valuable than the whole seed? 
while the waste products from the manufac¬ 
ture of the oil are also more valuable than 
whole seed, no matter in what form used. 
Value of the Cotton Seed Crop of the U. S. 
The Superintendent of the Census reports 
tlie average weight of the bales of the cotton 
crop of 1879 at 475 lbs. each. As there are 
two lbs. of seed for every pound of lint, a 
crop of 6,000,000 bales of cotton implies the 
production of 950 lbs. of seed per bale—• 
5,700,000,000lbs., or 190,000,000 bushels, or, as 
we generally estimate it, 2,850,000 tons. Ac¬ 
cording to the last census there were 14,462,- 
431 acres planted in cotton in 1879. Allowing 
2 bushels per acre for planting and waste, 
432,872 tons would be used for this purpose. 
Deducting this from the whole crop—2,850,000 
—leaves 2,417,128 tons to be used as stock 
food or manure. These, if used by the mills, 
will yield the various products in quantities 
and values as follows :— 
84,599.480 gallons crude oil @ 35c...$29,609,818 
906,423 tons of cake @ $20.00. 18,128,460 
53,176,S16 lbs. linters @ 7c. 3,722,377 
42,299 tons ashes @ $12... 507,588 
tuna aoucs .... „. «ju»,uoo 
Aggregate value of products..$51,96®,243 
Deduct cost of 2,417,128 tons of seed @ I 
$10.00 per ton. f .. ..$24,171,280 
Excess of value of products over cost of seed $27,796,963 
The reader will observe that the value of 
the crude oil alone exceeds the cost of the 
seed at present prices, by $1,812,855, and that 
the gross profits of the mills, after paying for 
the seed is $27,796,963. 
It is evident that the planter is not receiv¬ 
ing his share of the profits of the crop. In¬ 
stead of $10 per ton, the mills can afford to 
pay $15, and still have a large margin for 
profit.—At $15 per ton the crop of seed would 
bring $36,256,920, which would still leave a 
margin of $15,711,323 for the mills. While 
the planter could afford, rather than use the 
whole seed as manure, to exchange the seed 
for the meal and ashes they would yield, still 
he is entitled to an equitable share in the 
profits and should demand such division by 
insisting upon a better price for his cotton 
seed. The above facts will aid him in decid¬ 
ing at what price to sell his seed to the mills. 
- A Device for a Sucking Cow. 
Mr. P. Bacon Davis, Tompkins Co., N. Y., 
has made a device t© prevent a cow from draw¬ 
ing her own milk. He sends us the follow’- 
ing description : “ Cut a piece of tug from an 
old harness, of sufficient length to go around 
the cow’s nose, about three inches above her 
mouth. Split the tug out upon one side for 
about eight inches, and drive wrought nails, so 
that the heads will rest against the inner sur¬ 
face of the other half of the tug. By means 
of a strap, which passes over the cow’s head, 
Fig. 2. —ANOTHER FORM. 
