The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-03-24
ROASTING COTTON SEED

hOAcl1NN NOAAO% ILL
So many questions + addressed me
the subject of roasting and feeding
seed that l am induced to pre-
pare a pamphlet on the subject that
will cover the whole ground as fully as
my experience and experiments have
gone, as we'll as the experience of a
number of intelligent gentlemen who
have taken much interest in the mat
ter. y large number of people have
commenced the use of roasted cotton
seed, and with all the usual degrees
of success and failure that attend the
Introduction of an untried article or
process. There is but one thing. per
haps, on which we all agree, and on
this | have heard no dissent-that
whilst much difference of opinion could
very properly be entertained as to the
manner and methods of roasting and
feeding, that the Improvement is so
great over raw seed that beyond all
question roasted cotton seed have come
to stay.
Cooking food for stock is no untricl
experiment. This whole generation has
been engaged in it, and with all this
experience there are but few things on
which we would all agree, astO whether
cooking does or does not improve it, is
narrowed down to a very few articles
and these are mainly such as are used
for human food. Corn or corn meal
perhaps, is not increased in value by
being cooked. [ think it is, but there
is such a vast number of Well-inf0rmcd
people who claim the contrary, that
would not dispute thequestiOn. Buttakc
Irish potatoes, which, in some sections
are largely used as an article of animal
food; put a hog in a pen and feed him
raw Irish potatoes and he will starvc
to death; but feed him we'll on cooked
potatoes and he will grow fat. TIL,
cooking adds nothing to their food
value; all that they eve contained was
in the potato before it was cooked, but
it was in no condition to be assimilatcd
or digested. The cooking produced a
chemical change which reversed these
conditions and made a wholesome and
palatable food Of an article that few
animals would eat or thrive on in its
raw state.
Precisely that IS the condition Of raw
cotton seed. Chemists have Frequently
shown that they contained a large per
cent. of all the elements that are de-
sirable in q flesh or fat-fOrming food.
Every cotton grower knows it, but he
has never been able to profit by his
knowledge, for few animals will eat
them, except upon cOmpuIsion, in
quantities sufficient to improve their
condition. They have a very bitter.
disagreeable taste; they contain a large
per cent. of oil that is very laxative
and purgeS to some extent all animals
that eat it. 1t is necessarily hard to
digest, and no animal can continue for
any length of time to eat a large guam
tity for those reasons. Combined with
other food a small amount can be
utilized, but no planter will claim that
he has been able to extract from them
In their raw state anything like the
food value they contain. Each bushcl
Of good seed contains about two quarts
of oil. Many animals will eat half q
bushel in twenty-four hours. Now. to
pour a quart Of raw oil into an animals
stomach each day for any length Of
time would disorganize the best digcs-
tive laboratory, and this is what it
really does do. The animal is O o
off its feed" and a change of food
becomes a necessity. Feeding the raw
seed has carried the animal over a GER
tain period of time, but has neither
improved it's condition OF increased its
value.
But roasting the cotton seed produces
this chemical change which is absoIu-
tely necessary to make them paIatabIe
and dlgestible. They have acquired a
nutty, fragrant taste and smell that IS
positively pleasant, and almost every
eats them as readily as they
Will eat corn, and their power to digest
and 50 assimilate the food they contain
is increased fully an hundred per cent.
roasted they make a rich, whole
some and paIatabIe food, and when fed
with . discretion and judgment, with
due regard to the end to be attained,
will show better results for their money
value than any food within reach of
the Southern farmer.
Since this matter of roasting the
seed has been under discussion it ha,
attracted the attention of a large mum
Der Of intelligent and progressive farm