462 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 June, 1902. 
Tropical Industries. 
COTTON SEED—A VALUABLE DISCOVERY. 
A discovery is announced in the American Fertiliser of a new method of 
treating cotton seed for the extraction of the oil, which, it is said, promises to 
revolutionise the industry, reduce the cost of manufacture by 50 per cent., 
and enable the purchasers of cotton seed to pay the farmers 830s. per ton more 
for the seed than they have hitherto been receiving. Many things appear to 
be tending towards making cotton-growing a most profitable industry, and we 
shall be glad to see some of our Southern farmers following the example of 
Dr. Thomatis, at Cairns, who has the courage of his conviction, and puts 15 
acres of his land under cotton. If the new process is what it claims to be, the 
rice of cotton seed will rapidly rise, and we earnestly advise Queensland 
farmers to obtain seed while it may be had reasonably, and to try an acre or two. 
We do not say—give up all else and grow cotton; on the contrary, give up 
nothing, but add cotton. It will not lie on the grower’s hand. It is always 
saleable at a price low or high according to the demand, and that demand for 
line and seed it ever increasing, both in Europe and Japan. 
The discovery is as follows :— 
Mr. H. I. Heard, a bond and investment expert and actuary, of Washington, 
D. C., arrived in the city of Charleston recently for the purpose of acquainting 
the southern people aati a discovery or invention just perfected at the national 
capital, which, he thinks, promises to completely revolutionise the cotton-seed 
oil industry. It is understood, according to the Oharleston News, that the 
present process for the turning out of cotton-seed oil requires the use of six 
different machines. The McFarland-Reinohl invention, relating to treating 
cotton seed, and for which a patent was applied for, will do away with these six 
pieces of machinery altogether. The seeds are placed in a large vat containing 
a certain chemical solution, and after a lapse of twenty minutes the hulls pop 
open and float on the surface, while the denuded kernels fall to the bottom of 
the vat. 
United States Chemist Wylie, of the Department of Agriculture, has 
ronounced this discovery as among the most wonderful of modern times. He 
as studied the matter carefully, and he sees in it a speedy change from the 
old-time methods of producing cotton-seed oil. Congressman Livingston, of 
Georgia, is interested in the scheme. He has always had the welfare of the 
southern farmer at heart, and he believes that this invention will result in great 
benefit to them in more ways than one. By the use of the machine for 
separating the cotton-seed kernels from the hulls and lint the small percentage 
of kernels which adhere to the hulls after they have been opened and the 
kernels which become entangled in the lint or fibre are recovered, and the 
lint partially dried and rendered fluffy. The following machines now required 
are discarded: Machine for cleaning seed of sand; machine for removing bolls, 
wood, &c.; magnetic machine for removing iron, nails, &c. ; delinting machine ; 
hulling machine, and a reel for separating meats from the hulls. In addition 
to the vat already mentioned, a machine is utilised for drying the kernels when 
they are to be transported a distance to an oil-mill, or when the oil is to be 
extracted immediately. The seed are taken directly from the vat to the 
crushing rolls; the mash is heated and the oil extracted in the usual way. It 
may then be refined or shipped as crude oil. The crushing rolls now in use are 
adapted for crushing the seed... 
‘The product of these processes” said Mr. Heard, “namely, dried cotton- 
seed kernels, reduces the weight one-half and the bulk two-thirds for trans- 
portation to oil-mills, while the cost of denuding the kernels is reduced nearly, 
if not fully, 50 per cent. as compared to the present prevailing practices of 
