, 1888-04-07
ROMANCE or COTTON SEED.
Its Rise in Agricultural InDortnncc
Reads, Like n Fairy Tale.

INe'biSs LAhe n Edlfy iaic.
Was ever there a history this side O!
Cinderella. of the uprising Of humility,
like that of the cotton seed? Sect!
For seventy years despiscd rs n nuisance
and burned or dumped as garbage.
Then discovered to be the very food
for which the soil was huugoriur, ami
reluctantly admitted to the rank of ugly
utilities.
Shortly aftcrward found to be nutri
lOus food for beast as well as soil, and
thersupon treated with something like
respect.
Once admitted to the circle Of Farm
~hushandries, found TO hold thirty-iive
gallons Of pure oil to the ton, worth in
its crude state $14 TO the ton, or $40
600, 600 for the whole crop of seed.
But then a system was devised for re-
hning this on up to n value of 81 a gal
Ion, and the frugal Italians placed a cask
at the o of every olive tree and then
deiied the Borean breath of the Alps.
And then experience showed that the
ton of cotton seed was n better fertilizer
and a better stock ford when robbed
of its thirty-five gallons of oil than before.
And that the hulls of the seed made
the best Of fuel for feeding the oil mill
engine!
And that the ashes of the hulls scooped
from the engines drift had the highest
commercial value as potash!
And that the ''refuse" of the whole
made the best and purest SOAP stock to
carry to the toilet the perfumes of Lubin
or Colgatel
About this time we began to spell cot
ton seed with capital letters.
And how it travelled abroad in its
various dressesl AS meal cakes it
whitened the meadows of England with
woolly fleeces and fattened the British
cattle under the oaks; it sputtered on
the stoves of the Dutch in lieu of lard ;
it glistened in the cafes of Paris as olive
oils under seals and signatures it couldn't
even pronounce to save its life, and from
under the dikes in Holland it went forth
to parade in all the bravery of butter
and butterine.
In our own country it renewed the
wasting strength of southern fields and
clad them with whiteness that would
shame the feeces Of England, or yellow
that would pale the fleeces of Argonauts.
1t knocked the western hog into spots
and poured the western lard out of the
frying pan into the fire. 1t furnished the
Armours and Fairbankses with a pure
substitute for the rancid fat they had
been shipping us, and suggested the pos
sibility of n clean and cheap lard.
And about this time ngr Jumped
on to cotton seed with both feet and pro-
posed to check its further career by a
prohibitory tax.
And now comes a gentleman of this
city with a process by which he extracts
thirty gallons of fine oil from every ton
of cotton seed meal after the oil mills
have done with it. In the ''tailings'' of
the oil mills he finds this unexpected and
ample store, which he deity extracts
with naphtha, leaving the meal more
nutritious as food for beast or field than
before he took $40 per ton from it.
This process he has proved repeatedly
in his laboratory, and soon will approve
in wider practice in a mill erected for the
purpose near Atlanta. This invention
will add 40 per cent. to the quantity of
oil taken by the old process from Il given
quantity of seed.
More than this, it suggests the splendid
possibilities yet undeveloped for this rural
Cinderella that has risen all so swiftly
from the ashes and the waste hcapl-At-
lanta Constitution.