The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1885-07-23
Cotton Seed Oil Hills.

J st. Louis to New Orleans, to reduce
!; The prices on cotton seed thirty per
cent. on the ground that the oil
manufacturing business could not
live on rates before then paid the
planters for seed-say SIP per ton.
The mills now in operation are
costly in equipment and are of large
capacity. Therefore they must ne
cessarily be situated at long inter
walls from each other. There are.
we believe, but nine in Alabama.
whereas every one Of the sixty six
counties Of the state produce more
or less cotton. Along the Missippi
river shores there is no mill of the
kind between Vicksburg and Green
Vile, and one at each of those towns.
On the western shore of the river
there is not one south Of Arkansas
City. 1t is evident that freights
over such long distances, and loss
es In handling the material, must
be largely accountable for the de
preston of the oil manufacturing
| business. Consumers of the meal
the product of the mills have TO paw
return treights on it, and through
out the process, the farmers who
sell seed at reduced price and who
buy meal at an increased price,
have the freights to contend with
At each end Of the transportation
| line.
A long felt need on the cotton
plantation has been an oil mill of
such proportions and cost as could
be put mp at the gin house. This
would save hauling the seed to, and
the meal from, the shipping point.
1t would save freights. 1t would
save on the place all the manurial
properties Of the seed for return To
the soil, and would give the planter
as bonus the oil product, which is
wholly lost TO him when used eth
er as manure or cattle feed.
This want promises at last to be
filled. Machinery has been made
at Atlanta, to cost about $4,000, oc-
cupying a space when all set up on
one floor of 30x40 feet, which viii
work up five tons of seed-that is.
the seed from ten bales of cotton
per diem. The market value of the
product in oil, meal and ashes from
the hulls would hardly be less than
$50 per diem clear of all expenses.
-Four barrels of oil and about two
tons of meal and two of ashes would
be the approximate output. The
engine used to turn the gin would
turn the oil mill, The hulls from
the seed used as a fuel would save
the considerable cost FOR wood now
incurred by the ginning, and in this
single item would more than pay
the interest on the complete ma
chinery. But this substitution Of
bulls for wood fuel is not the only
saving. In the $4,000 estimate for
machinery Is included the seed
cleaners. From the seed cleaning
process comes an inferior quality Of
lint sold, however, at a price of
ive-eights and upward Of the ruling
rates of the lint from the first gin
ming.
Labor for such machinery is
abundant on every large plantation
and cheap, Skilled labor is not re
CURED.
The impOverishment Of the cotton
growing lands by the expectation Of
the seed and its proporuonate dis
use as q fertilizer, without any ei-
fort in many places to make n sub
stitute, is becoming very serious.
Why should European formers be
able to buy at our mills and carry
across the Atlantic, To be used as a
fertilizer, the meal our land so sad
" need? The only reply is that
European farmers carry more skill
and more of the fruits of thought
and calculation into their business
han do our farmers.
The gross output Of the $4,000
invested in a cotton seed oil mill
suitable for a plantation, would be
laily at present prices, not under
go. The prosperous planter would
sell only the four or FIVE barrels, dai-
y, Of crude oil, In two ginning
seasons, on an average plantation
IF the larger class, the sale of the
oil and cleanings would probably
pay for the machinery necessary To
the oil and meal. The
ashes and meal would be moro val
liable as a fertilizer, and no less ex-
pensive to handle on the farm, than
.he seed entire.
The farther experimental tests 90
with cotton seed meal as feed for
live stock the greater its value APP
pears. 1t is considered by dairy
men the best concentrated feed for
milk COWS, three quarts per day be
ing ample for the COW. 1t has been
used on large planta
tions as food for work mules.
We believe the problem Of trans
portation will operate against the
large and widely dispersed mills so
seriously as To call attention to the
expediency of the small mills capa-
BILE of doing plantation work on the
premises. This tact once discover
ed, the south will see opened TO it n
heretofore strangely neglected live
stock feed Of the cheapest and most
valuable character, and the most
certain Of supply.