American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1866-09-15

turned, enable us to raise nine more bales
Of lint than without this return We shall
be able to do.
And what does the manufacturer offer
to pay up for this precious material
According to the rates prevailing before
the war. about 81 in greenbacks against
nine prospective bales Of cotton. Truly.
a small "bird in the hand" against those
which an industrious hand 10 quite sure OF
getting out of the "bush."
There is.in fact, not another crop which
ought legitimatsly to exhaust the soil so
little as cotton. Take the corn crop and
assume that an acre which will make
bale Of cotton. will yield IS bushels OF
corn. These contain IS pounds OF min
eral ingredient derived from che soil. or
enough for six crops Of corn lint. But. II
in raising cotton we withdraw The seed
also, the matter is reversed, and We End
that in single crop 1900 pounds OF seed
we have lost or sold the ingredients for
crop and half of corn or 81 bushels.
This is the value to the planter Of 900
pounds of cotton seed. for which the oil
manufacturer offers him four or Eve
dollars.
In view of these facts. it is needless to
comment on the practice Of those who
pile up around their gin.houses. or throw
into bayous, thousands upon thousands Of
bushels of cotton seed per annum. But
these figures enable US to understand how
lands which nigh, have produced cotton
crops unremittingly for q century and
half, hadthe seed always been returned.
have. Cd the contrary. been exhausted iu
eighteen or twenty years, for. shss man
aged. the cotton crop is one OF the mos'
exhaustive known.
But should we therefore denounce and
discountens ne the cotton seed oil manul
facture By no means the oil is too
valuable, too much needed at time when
whale oil is fast declining in quantity and
rising in price, to be lightly discarded.
Nor is the withdrawal Of the oil any injury
to the soil on which i. was raised. since
it contains scarcely an appreciable guam.
lty Of mineral ingredient. The ssed.cake
is equally as valuable as the seed from
which it was made, both as manure and
as food for cattle (if we except fal.ening
hogs, more valuable indeed 10 many
points Of view.
The planter could we'll afford to give
the oil gratis to the manufacturer, for the
advantage of having bis cotton seed con.
verted into a much more valuable form,
in which i. can be preserved for length
of time, acts more rapidly as a manure,
and mparts much less of the oil flavor to
the milk and butter of cows fed with it.
The manure of cattle fed with cotton
seed, il properly collected. contains the
mineral ingredients Of the latter in even
a more valuable form without less. But
cotton seed or seed cake would be very
costly feed to the cotton planter who would
not collec. and avail himself Of the manure
resulting from it.
Every county 10 this State ought to have
its cotton seed oil press. 10 which the
planter might carry bis seed and. leaving
the oil behind for toll. carry back his seed,
cake as regularly every year as be carries
his own grain to the mill.
But the cotton seed OF! manufactures in
our large cities, whence the cake is e1'
ported. and finally lost to the country, are
calamity to tie cotton interest. Already
England has caught the scent, and is pre-
pairing TO swaiIowsin her sa,iable NAV the
fertility of our cotton lands, as she has thai
of the pastures Of the west of Europe. in
the shape Of bone-for which she is now
resurrecting her own dead on the battle
field OF the Crimes. II some of our over
confident bottom-planters think they can
afford to sell their cotton seed manure. let
our upland planters take advantage Of it.
and by means Of the oil-cake transfer q
part Of surplus fertility Of the bottom to
their less thrifty soil. But do not let us
send the life.essencs OF cotton culture out
of the country, least Of all. to the bottom
Of the Gulf of Mexico
EUG. w. HILGARD,