The comet., 1880-04-17
Cotton Seed and Cotton Seed Meal as
Fertilizers and Food for Stock.

Prof. Hilgard, formerly Professor o
Agricultural Chemistry at the Univer
sity of Mississippi, and State Geol
ogist, in an article on this subject
says:
The use of whole cotton seed, es
pecially when previously cheated" )" Oh
buried too deep for sprouting, is prob
ably the least effectual mode of en-
plOying that excellent fertilizer and
this for a variety of reasons, of which
the chief are the following
1st. The furze and hull constitute
very serious obstacles to the access,
both Of the moisture which promotes
decay, and Of the rootlets seeking
nourishment. 1t thus happens that
when the seed is used in this manner,
that sprouting fails to remove these
obstacles. 1t may lie in the soil for a
twelve-mOnth with little or no change,
we shall find the hull almost intact,
with a black, shrunken kernel inside,
enclosing all the soil ingredients, safe
from the demands of the growing crop.
All that it does the first season is to
stimulate the soil by gasses formed in
fermentation, while the most import
ant part has failed to bear its own in-
tercst This evil is enhanced by
I'd. The oiliness of the seed, which
materially prevents decay; the kernel
being, as it were, "put up in OIL" like
sardines or olives inside its hull.
Sprouting will, it is true, remove these
difficulties but in the majority of
cases, this involves serious fnconven-
ience, whether the seed be first sprout-
ed in piles and then labOriously work
ed in, or be allowed to sprout in hills
or drill, where it frequently chokes or
kills the other seed by lifting them
out of the grOund-being then, more
over, too near hesurface to be readily
available to the roots of most crops. 1t
is not enough that the soil ingredients
be "present," they must be in the
proper condition; and put in the right
place. Manure, to be profitable, must
have its ingredients readily available,
and must be capable of being readily
mixed with the soil around and be-
meath the plant. The former condi-
ton requires rapid and complete de-
cay, the latter pOwdsry or granulat-
ed form. Both are most advanta-
geously fulfilled in Oil Cake Meal,
which contains substantially all the
soil ingredients from which the seed is
made, except the small amount con-
tanned in the hull and furze. The oil
carries with it traces only of the soil
and its absence is an adj
in 50 far that decay takes
place more readily and complete
for it must be understood that the un-
1ecayed vegetable or animal matter is
not available as nutriment to plants
The high value Of Cotton Seed Cabe
Meal as fertilizer, as indicated by its I.
chemical composition, is amply cOn- |
iirmed by experience; and while, for .
that reason alone, we should deprecate .
It's expectation, the fact that it is great,
" to be preferred t. the raw seed it I
should render the cOnver-
'iOn of the latter into Cake Meal one
If the matter-Of-cOurse operations of
;ottOn planting. The cheap and eff
,ient fertilizer thus produced at home,
whose quality every one can control,
would soon drive out of the market
arge portion of the costly imported
while the settled policy of
regularly to the c6tt0n-field
of the soil ingredients
AIKEN up by the crop, in a most effica-
.iOus condition, would at once estab-
ish our cotton culture upon the firm
'asis Of the maintenance OF fertility.