The Bossier banner., 1890-08-21
FARMER AND PLANTER.
ROASTING COTTON SEED.
One Of She Pork Making Ingredients OK
tie South in Future.

| Ono Of ehe Pork Making Ingredients OK
tile South in Future
The unabated interest manifested in
the subject of roasted cotton SEED LOT
feeding purposes induces me to write
further in regard TO its value and uses
and in so doing will answer some OF the
many questions that are asked about 1T;
and If I fsil to make it plain that their
value is much increased by being roast
ed, hope at least that many readers
will try experiments in small way 10
see how great a change is erected by
slightly roasting the seed.
An intelligent gentleman who is much
! interested in the matter, desires to know
if it would be proper or possible to feed
the meal in large quantities or Tor a.
Considerable length of time, ana
claims that an analysis of the
meal shows it to be too rich food
to be fed alone, that is, that II does
not contain a complete food ration 01
itself, but must be used in connection
with other food to attain the best re-
suits This is undoubtedly true to some
extent, aud it applies as well to corn IS
to cotton seedi but the roasting process
makes it possible to be fed in much
larger quantities, and, an certain,
with much better results. The theory
deduced from chemical analysis is
often sadly tnarred by practical dem
onstration, and l have seen 50 many OF
them in regard to cotton-seed completes
ly up set that have lost good deal of
confidence in chemistry. Not long since
l wrote to a well-known authority on
agricultural chemistry as to what would
be the result of feeding cattle food
containing twenty per cent. OF potash,
and he replied on postal card that it
it was continued for any length of time
would have some hides to sell to the
tannery.
Now, / am not so sure of that. Cot
ton seed hulls contain twenty-seVen per
cent. of potash. They contain little or
nothing that the chemist admits is ami
NAL food, yet ten thousand head of cat
tie have been fed and fattened about
the oil mills this last winter. Their
sole food was cotton-seed hulls, with
an admixture of oil-miu meal; other
thousands of cattle have been wintered
, Ol NLAO nuns 1AOAAOS PhAOheSSON ~ ASAAA
ers from the mills, where it has been
convenient to do so. For years it was
the custom to burn the hulls at the
mills as fuel for the engine, but cattle
eat them as freely as they will eat hay,
and thrive quite as well upon them.
i had hoped to have inserted with
this number an engraving of cotton
seed foasteF which embodies the best
results of number of years of exc
perience and experiment, but it is too
, long for this publication, and / can not
have suitable ore prepared in time.
Of the many devices l have tried moth
ing but revolving cylinder will an
[ swer the purpose at all, It must be
constantly agitated while over the fire,
and no pan or oven, no matter how
large, will do, as the seed must be
] brought in contact with the fire but an
. instant at time, and this can only be
secured by the rolling motion given it
in revolving cylinder which scorches
off the lint and cooks it to any degree
3 in very short time
And l soon found also that closed
: cylinder would not answer. The seed
contain large amount of moisture
which must be eliminated before the
: roasting begins. The numberless de-
vices to secure this has led to making
0 the cylinders of woven wire cloth, woven
: to a size that the seed would not pass
D through, and this has practically solved
: this question of roasting seed in a prac.
3 tical way, the heat and flame passing
: through the woven wire cylinder,
!, scorched off the lint, evaporated the
q moisture and roasted the seed in a very
!, few minutes
Cotton seed is so cheap that but lit
? tie labor or expense must be incurred
8 in roasting, or it would not be profita
BILE to do SO. All my experiment.
3 have been to combine simplicity
: cheapness, durability and practia
bility; without these it could be o.
s little use to the average planter. II the
feeding value of bushel of raw seed is
fifteen cents, and it is doubled by being
: roasted, the planter has gained butlittlt
I if it costs him fifteen cents busheI t.
= roast it. So soon as had satisfied nv
9 self of the value of roasted seed | con
: fined my efforts to processes by which
: they could be roasted rapidly and cheap
ly. The question of feeding them who'll,
: or grinding them into meal is one tina
each can settle for themselves, but m,
: own experience is that it is better Il
4 grind them and grind them rather fine
, They are so dry and brittle that the
grind rapidly in any sort of mill d.
: not sift them, but the lint it contain
: land there will be some) is readil,
; separated by being shaken in box o
I pan.-C. G. Greene, in Southern Farm
9 TALK TO FARMERS.