1 Ocr., 1898.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 265 
The seed has been crushed by powerful machinery, and the result is about 
20 per cent. of oil, leaving a residue of about 80 per cent., which is made into 
cake for sheep and cattle feed. ‘The oil in its crude state is used chiefly in the 
manufacture of soap, and it is largely exported to the Continent for the same 
purpose. Refined cotton-seed oil is also exported to the Continent, where it 
is used for edible purposes. Roughly, one-half of the total British make of 
oil goes abroad. It is a pleasant fiction to suppose that the oil which we use 
for dressing salads comes exclusively from olives. Frequently the name of 
olive is a mere courtesy title; cotton-seed oil forms the principal ingredient 
which flavours the succulent salad. But in these days of adulteration there is 
nothing startling in that fact. 
EGYPTIAN COTTON-SEED. 
Fally nine-tenths of the cotton-seed imported into this country come 
from Egypt; the remaining tenth is exported by America, Smyrna, and 
Mersyne. Let us follow the seed from its growth in Egypt to its conversion 
in England into cake and oil. In Lower Egypt, where the bulk of the cotton 
crop is grown, sowing usually begins in February and continues throughout 
March and April. The sowing commences in the southern provinces of the 
Delta, and gradually extends to the northern provinces. A comparatively small 
area is also sown in Upper Egypt and the Fayoum district. If the plants 
receive the normal heat of an Hgyptian summer ; if worms do not play havoc 
with them when flowering; if the water supply is sufficient and regular; if 
frogs do not retard the progress of growth—given these conditions, the cotton- 
trees are likely to be covered with flowers and bolls by the month of August, 
and the first picking in Lower Egypt will commence in September. In Upper 
Egypt and the Fayoum the crop commences in August, and the earlier arrivals 
of cotton and cotton-seed in Alexandra, the port of shipment, are from those 
districts. ‘The height of the Nile is the most important factor bearing upon 
the welfare of the cotton crop; and it is but natural, therefore, that this river, 
which is the life-blood of Egypt, should receive careful, constant, and, at times, 
anxious attention. The fluctuations in the height of the Nile are of absorbing 
interest to the Egyptian grower; the Nilometer is to him, but in a greater 
degree, what the barometer is to the Hnglish farmer. August is the most 
critical period for the crop; during that month an anxious time is experienced. 
“PICKING” 
means extracting from the ripe bolls the seeds which they contain. The seeds 
are covered with fine downy hairs. These hairs are the raw cotton of com- 
merce, Their commercial value varies with their length and their degree of 
fineness ; the longer the staple and the finer the fibre, the higher are the prices 
obtainable for the cotton, Similarly, the quality of the seed depends upon the 
percentage of oleaginous matter which it contains, and upon its freeness from 
lint. For the next step, after picking and drying, is to send the seed to the 
“Dbarber’s shop” to be “‘shayed’”’ ; the closer the crop, and the balder the seed 
is rendered, the more successful is the operation. Here, however, the 
metaphor fails, for the hair of the seed is of considerably greater value than 
the seed itself. The latter is separated from the lint by means of machinery, 
technically known as “ gins.” 
GINNING COTTON 
has now been brought to a high state of perfection in Egypt. The Egyptian 
gins are of the most modern type; they are perhaps the finest in the world. 
They work both expeditiously and effectively, and the result is that Egyptian 
cotton-seed is cleaner (in the sense of being freer from lint) than any other. 
The cake made from cotton-seed other than Egyptian is not in general favour 
with consumers, owing to the quantity of lint which is left on the seed; the 
cake has excessively binding effects which are apt to be injurious to cattle. 
Unimportant shipments of American seed, chemically delinted, occasionally 
T 
