Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 March 1894 — DESPISED NO MORE. [ARTICLE]

DESPISED NO MORE.

Cotton Seed Has Mow Deposed King Cotton from His Throne. A few decades ago cotton held undisputed sway in the country; cotton seed was regarded as valueless. Even five years ago when the Southern planter gathered his cotton and sold it he paid little attention to the seed. He saved enough of it to raise his next year's crop, and, if convenient, kept a few bushels more to feed the milk cows around his farm. Sometimes he carted off a few wagon loads to dump on an old field as a fertilizer, and often he refused to haul it away from the gin at all. The amount that rotted around such places was immense. When any was sold, it commonly brought 5 cents a bushel, provided the farmer was not ashamed of taking anything for such a commodity. Even three years ago, in many sections of the South, 8 cents .for a tfishel of cotton seed was con'sidered a good price. Last year the price was often as high as 25 cents and occasionally reached 32 cents. When cotton itself sells at 6 cents or 7 cents per pound and seed at the prices mentioned the farmers begin to feel as if they would like their cotton to be all seed. As it is, the seed not unfrequently constitutes one-fourth or even one-third the value of the whole crop. So important a matter has it become that to-day one single company has $40,C0),0;,0 invested in handling cotton seed products. The uses to which cotton-seed products are put are almost innumerable. The oil itself is used in making soap, other oils, lard, butterine and countless other things. We ship immense quantities to Europe—especially Rotterdam—and bring it back again slightly refined under the names of olive oil and linseed oil. The Armours and other pork men use large amounts in putting up lard. Cottolene is the name of a new product now coming into use as a competitor of lard. Many housekeepers use the oil itself instead of lard and claim to like it. The meal remaining after the oil has been extracted is fed to cattle, and is said to produce excellent results. The hulls also are fed to cattle. Twenty pounds of hulls and ten of meal make a full daily feed for beef steers, and the cattle are ready for market in ninety days. The hulls, furthermore, are now being used in manufacturing paper.