The morning news., 1891-03-02
THE c 1TrON PLANT.
How All Parts Of 1t are Utiliz ed
Something About the Stalk


Something About the Stalk.
FERNASDIEA, FLA. March Cotton is
well known. King Cotton rules a large
space in the financial world. Every possible
thing tnat can modify the estimate Of the
/ coming crop of cotton is thoroughly
/ scanned, and We have monthly, weekly.
aud even daily bulletins. picking up every
| fact that has any bearing on the coming
/ output Of cotton.
Equally carefully do these bulletins pre-
J sent the visible cotton. All Of this not only
indicates the value Of colt n IN tina Ice. bnt
| its valCe to the manufacturer and con-
| sumer OF manufactured goods. 1t even goes
further than this. Various other Occupa-
tions are directly and indirectly affected by
the yearly output or cotton.
Connected with the cotton plant are other
interests perhaps not as well known. Take.
for instance, the tton seed. Cotton seed
oil has become known as & very valuable
aud almost indispensable article Of COM
merce. 1t even largely superSeies olive oil
ana lard as an article Of food. The cOarser
grades are invaluable as the bases Of soaps
and for other uses. In producing these ar
ticles from the seeds, till very lately the
seed hulls have been allowed to rot or have
been burned. Thousands Of tons have thus
been wasted annually.
Within few years, however, these seed
hulls have been found to contain a valua ble
fibre, and now this raw material is fully
utilized AMI the finest grades Of paper are
male from it. THIS output amounts TO
thousand of tons annually.
We may say then tnat the cotton, the
lint and the seeds are all fully utilized, but
this is a small par of the plant
What Of the cotton stalk, which, TO say
the least, constitutes seven-eighths of the
plant
Is there a fiber in it Of any valuel
The fact that the cotton stalk contains a
large quantity of very valuable fiber has
been fully proven for considerable time.
Various devices have been planned to ex-
tract this fiber profitably, but so far none
have become practically effective.
There are several almost insuperable diff
culties to overcome
First, from the time the cotton is picked
till frost appears there intervenes but few
weeks, and the crop must be handled in that
period. Practically, then, il plant is made
TO handle the crop IL must remain idle a
large portion of the year
The second difficulty to overcome is
cartage
Take any given territory and in it make
cotton stalk fiOer plant. A very careful
observation will disclose the fact tina within
a radius of four or five miles there is not a
sufficient quantity of cotton stalks to make
the plant pay, aud more than this, when the
haul is over five miles the cost Of raw ma
te ial will consume all the profits. A rail-
road will not avoid the difficulty. Tide
water rivers may, in very few localities.
overcome this objection. These few excep-
tions, however, are Of no consequence.
What we must have is a plan to utilize
the whole crop Of cotton stalks.
In this field Of invention are now quite
number OF workers, and il would be assum-
ing too much to bring forward what might
prove to be half developed plans.
Other minor difficulties appear, but have
stated the practical ones.
1t now appears pretty well established
that King Cotton is not as valuable as the
remaining part Of the plant
SILAs L. LOOMS.