The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1882-05-06
Cotton Seed Oil-vast Increase of Wealth.

The remarkable increase in the man
nfacture of this article reads almost like
a romance, as but recently, within the
past ten years, has it received anything
like full development.
The cotton crop, as gathered by the
hands in the field, forms. by weight,
one-third lint and two-thirds seed. In
former days for every 500-pound bale
of cotton sent to market, about 1000
pounds of seed was left lying around the
gin house, exposed to the weather for
cattle to pick over and get a lean lunch
from the rotting pile. Even when cared
for, it was hauled back to the cotton field
to be spread the same as manure. Taken
altogether, the result was nearly all
loss.
Now, it is carefully preserved, and is
in large demand for a number of valu-
able purposes, the principal of which is
the making of oil. In the last three
years fully a hundred new mills have
sprung up in the South for working the
seed, and the competing demand is quite
brisk, the price having raised from Sc
to S12 ton, or double. This means, of
course, that the planter now makes at
least Sc a bale more from his cotton
than when he wasted the seed, and got
nothing for it.
The increase in wealth from this
source is truly enormous for the cotton
growing States. For 1000 pounds of
seed, costing six dollars, makes about
seventeen and one-half gallons of oil,
selling quickly at forty cents a gallon,
while the resulting cake is considered
even more valuable for cattle food and
as fertilizer than the seed from which
it is made, and sells for quite as much
as the seed costs, leaving the oil as
nearly clear profit, less cost of making.
This oil is in strong demand in the Med
iterranean ports of France and Italy,
where it is refined and mixed with table
olive oils, so largely used in Europe in
stead of lard. The adulterated article
is said to be quite as good as the perfect
ly pure, and not to be distinguished from
it. BY another process the oil is solidi-
fled and largely used as a substitute for
butter, being a most acceptable substI-
tute, selling at wholesale at one dollar a
gallon, and retailing much higher. The
butter made from the seed taken from a
bale of cotton is said to be worth sixteen
dollars, and almost net addition to the
value of the cotton crop. This article
is even said to be used to adul-
terate cheese, by the honest dairymen
of the Northern States. When first re-
ceived at the oil mills, the seed is care
fully re-ginned, and about ten per cent
of short cotton lint is saved, which is
used for making the finest quality of
batting. 1t then passes to another ma
chine, which takes off the hulls, passing
them to the engine room to be used for
fuel. The kernels are then crushed and
pressed the same as fiaxseed, the result
ing oil being barreIed, while the hard
cake is baggeG up in 100-pound pack
ages, or ground up and sold for cattle
feeding purposes, greatly adding both to
the value of the beef and the manure.
The value of this new Southern bo-
nanza may be best understood by saying
that it adds fully twenty-five per cent.
to the cotton industry of the States pro-
ducing that staple. For the census year
1880 the crop was reported to be
5,737 ,257 bales, averaging 500 pounds
each, and worth 1886, S62, $50, to which
this newly developed product will add a
still further value of $71,713,210, or
nearly as much as the entire annual
product of all the gold and silver mines
of the United States put together
Prairie Fdrn1er.