FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
119 
VEGETABLE AMMONIATES. 
COTTON SEED MEAL. 
Among the most valuable of the veg¬ 
etable ammoniates is cotton seed meal. 
This like other fertilizer products for 
years was a waste product but now is a 
source of much profit not only to the oil 
mills but to the farmers themselves. The 
process of making the cotton seed meal is 
a very simple one. The seeds are 
crushed and passed into a hot tank or re¬ 
ceptacle and heated and from there k 
goes into a hydraulic press where the oil 
is pressed out and the cotton seed cake 
is the result. This cake is then ground 
and we have cotton seed meal. 
The value of the meal depends on how 
much lint is ground in with the meal and 
also on the general condition of the seed 
when they were ground. Bright cotton 
seed meal will average 8 per cent, am¬ 
monia when properly made but the in¬ 
creased price of meal of all kinds has been 
a great temptation to the mill people to 
increase their tonnage by increasing the 
amount of hull or lint in the meal. This 
reduces the percentage of ammonia and 
where the meal should analyze 8 per cent, 
it frequently goes as low as 6 1-2 and 7 
per cent. During the last few years the 
demand for meal has increased and the 
price advanced so the mills are not very 
particular about making 8 per cent, goods 
and are satisfied with 71-2 per cent. 
The bright meal is made from the 
short staple cotton while the dark meal is 
made from the long staple and does not 
contain as much ammonia at any time 
as the bright meal owing to the hull being 
much harder and forming a larger pro¬ 
portion of the hull. The analysis of the 
dark meal is from 5 to 6 per cent, am¬ 
monia. The dark meal is as good as the 
bright for fertilizing purposes unit for 
unit. 
CASTOR POMACE. 
Castor Pomace is now very largely 
sold as an ammoniate and is made in a 
similar way to cotton seed meal, that is 
the castor beans are ground and the oil 
pressed out and the cake pulverized. The 
analysis of castor pomace varies from 5 
1-2 to 6 1-2 per cent, ammonia with a 
small percentage of phosphoric acid and 
potash. It is considered a valuable source 
of plant food where crops are long feed¬ 
ers. This is especially the case in rais¬ 
ing pineapples. 
TOBACCO STEMS. 
In former years tobacco stems were 
used more largely as a fertilizer than 
now. Formerly they could be purchased 
at $2.00 per ton in bulk at the stemenes 
and now their value is placed at from 
$16.00 to $20.00 according to the kind 
of tobacco. The nicotine extract has be¬ 
come so valuable that the manufacturers 
can afford to pay a much higher price 
for the stems than the farmer. They are 
considered a very good source of fer¬ 
tilizer where the price will warrant their 
use. 
TOBACCO DUST. 
In the manufacture of all kinds of to¬ 
bacco there is more or less dust which 
heretofore has been thrown away but is 
now carefully saved and sold to the grow¬ 
ers. Besides containing ammonia and 
potash it is also used as an insecticide 
and is considered of considerable value 
for that purpose. The ammonia, how¬ 
ever, of the average tobacco dust does 
not exceed 4 per cent, and frequently is. 
not over 1 1-2 to 2 per cent. 
GROUND TOBACCO STEMS. 
The sheep-dip manufacturers had an 
accumulation of soaked tobacco stems on 
