The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1888-03-13

ately preceding. We doubt not that
the value of the product will continue
to increase, though, perhaps, not every
season as rapidly as during the one
just past. We may consider it certain
that within very few years we shall
find good cotton seed oil to be worth
ST. a gallon in our home market. Peo-
pie will have become accustomed to
buy it under it's own proper name at
such moderate price rather than to
pay three or four times the amount
for exactly the same article under a
foreign name and label. The South
erners, who raise the seed themselves
and are familiar with the process of
manufacturing the oil, know their own
product to be infinitely superior to
lard for cooking purposes, and have
used it for many years. In recent
work DR.. Jesse P. Battershall. Phi. D.,
f. G. S., Chemist United States Lab
oratory, says: ....... -.....
GAS a result of the publicity lately
given to the subject of food adultera-
tion popular impression has been
produced that any substance employed
as an adulterant of or substitute for
another is to be avoided per se. Per-
haps the common belief that for all
purposes cotton seed oil is inferior to
olive oil is the most striking illustra-
tion of this tendency. Now, as a mat
ter of fact, pure cotton seed oil as at
present found on the market is less
liable to become rancid than the pro-
duct of the olive, and for many Gull
nary uses it is at least quite as service
able. The sale of such products un-
der their true name should not only
be allowed, but under some circum-
stances even encouraged"
All new food products require time
to secure their introduction into gen.
eral use 1t was with much difficulty
that Europeans were first induced to
accept the potato as a regular article
of diet. But when valuable food
product comes upon the market at
price much below the cost of other
similar articles the new product GER
tainly comes to stay. Cotton seed oil,
being equal to olive oil and superior
to lard and cheaper than either, is
bound to occupy large place in COM
merce. It is only question of time
when cotton seed oil will supersede all
other fats and oils for cooking pur-
poses. Physicians agree that nine
tenths of American dyspepsia is due
to the use of lard in pastry and cook
ing. Physicians likewise agree that
the use of vegetable cotton seed as a
substitute for lard will remedy this
difficulty. "
The growth of the cotton seed in
dustry and it's benefit 10 the country
may be illustrated by few facts. In
1879 only one-seventh of the available
cotton seed in the United States was
actually milled for oil, while during
the last year, with far larger crop, it
is estimated that two-thirds or three
fourths of the available seed has been
thoroughly utilized. The price of cot
ton has been declining for years, like
the price of wheat; but the loss to the
planter in the price of his cotton
seems to have been more than made
up to him in the steadily-increasing
value of his seed; and this while our
wheat dealers have felt the force of
competition from India, Russia and
many other distant markets in the
decreasing price of our staple
cereal; our cotton planters, on the other
hand, have received profitable returns
from their crops because Of the value
of cotton seed, although the price of
the cotton alone has declined, as afore-
said. We have spoken of cotton seed
oil as national industry, and SO it is.
The seed is raised in the South and
the crude oil is manufactured in
Southern mills. But this crude mate
rial is refined chiefly in the North,
there being extensive refneries in
Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Pitts
burg, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Provi-
dence, r. l., etc. Then the settings
or foots are used for soap by nearly
all the great soap manufactures of the
North so that cotton seed is in no
sense a sectional product. Twenty
five years ago Europe received large
proportions of its annual supply OF
cotton from India, Brazil, Egypt and