44 
LITTLE WANDERERS. 
they are clothed with. They contain a good deal of oil 
and are ground in mills, that the oil may be pressed 
out. This oil is put to a number of uses, and when 
purified is even used instead of olive oil as food. The 
meal that is left after the oil has been pressed out 
makes a valuable fertilizer, and is also used as food for 
cattle. Horses will not eat it, but cows are so fond of 
it that they will come long distances to the mills in 
order to lick up what meal they can find. This is the 
way its value as a food for cattle was discovered. 
Cotton-seed meal is bright greenish yellow in color, 
and as it colors everything it touches, the cotton-seed 
mills are rather picturesque to look at, though not very 
pleasant to walk about in. 
The bark of 
the root of the 
cotton plant 
is used as a 
medicine. But 
though so many 
parts of this 
wonderful plant 
are useful, the 
cotton that 
covers the seeds 
is the most valu- 
able of all. 
