The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1893-03-29
4 Question of Cotton Seed.

From time to time attention has been
called by the Nc'Os a,,d Courier to The
growing importance Of the cotton seed
Industry, an industry which has sprung
in the last few years from comparatively
nothing to an enterprise controlled by
great corporations and in which millions
Of dollars are invested. The average
cotton yield per acre last year was IA
bales, or bale to about 2.25 acres. This
means about l,500 pounds Of seed cotton,
of which 1000 pounds are seed. In 900
pounds of seed there are about 80 bushels,
calculating 80 pounds to the bushe,
which at the average price Of seed nets 20
cents, or $500 to u acres, which, added
TO the receipts for bale Of cotton, brings
the profit up considerably.
Tho figures are not available in this
city, where the lack Of statistical infor-
nation outside that published in the
Annual Review of the NeWS and Courier
is notorious, but prominent cotton firm
in Savannah has furnished some figures
which are interesting, bearing, as they
do, upon this subject. Thelirm collected
during the past season SILL ,5OG Is for two
of its custom mers-Georgia farmers, near
This amount represents over 525 tons OF
out of numerous others like it.
The industry of raising tho seed is
growing rapidly and about four-tifths OF
the seed produced last year was market
ed, where very little of it was sold two
years ago. The yield from the seed
counter balances to great extent the
depression to the farmer as result OF
low prices obtained for the lint cotton,
and, instead of being dumped back on
the field for fertilizers, it is now almost
all sold to the mills, and commercial fer
tilizers are used to enrich the lands.
There is a prospect, too, that cotton
seed will bring. far better prices as the
products derived from it are increased.
There has been discovered means for
making india rubber from the oil Of the
seed, and experiments are now being
conducted In the vicinity of this city with
view to making the process cheap
enough to be profitable. In fact, good
deal Of the product has been successfully
put on the market. The india rubber is
pronounced the genuine article, and is
said to be as good as that which com es
from tho juice of the Oriental rubber tree.
The seed which will produce an oil which
is one of the most excellent and whole
some foods vet discovered, meal which is
perfect stock food, q hull which can
hardly be eXceled as a fertilizer, and
besides all these an oil which promises to
Weld rubber shoes, coats, hose and the
various other articles made from the
Indian gum, promises one day to yield
an industry which will rival in impol-
tance the cotton industry itself.
No certain limit can be set to its devel-
opment, and there is no predicting what
other products may be extracted from it.
There are few people who are aware that
the source of most of their fruit favoring
extracts is tho black and sluggish coal
tar, yet such is the case, and chemists are
now working to draw quinine from the
same source. There is possibility tnat
some day the cotton seed industry may
be the prime yield of the cotton plant.
Tho report that the large sale Of the
commercial fertilizers this year means an
increased cotton acreage, and consequent
" q reduced price, is agood argument on
it's face, but the fact is that most Of the
seed formerly used as fertilizer on the
cotton fields have been marketed during
the past season, and there was nsthipg to
do but supply their place with the COM
mercial article.
The profit in the seed has been 80 great
even at the price it now brings that the
farmers make great deal by selling it
and using commercial fertilizers, which
answer almost as we'll in their stead.
Thus the cotton seed industry has called
forth an increase in the fertilizer busi-
ness, and in that way has indirectly built
up another industry.
Some years ago the Ne,OS and Coarie,
called attention to the discovery of q
lintless cotton plant which was raised in
Spartanburg County and of which q
specimen was sent to Charleston,
The plant which produces the seed is
similar to the ordinary cotton plant, but
can stand q greater degree of drought.
The seed, which grow in pods or bolls,
are smaller than the seed Of the ordinary
cotton plant, and have not quite 30 large
kernel, but the large increase in the
yield compensates for the small size
The plant, it Is claimed, produces from
200 to 400 bushels of seed alone to each
acre. At that rate the culture of the
lintless cotton would pay far better than
the ordinary cotton crop.
Since then this plant has been cultivat-
ed in Texas and elsewhere, and, in view
of the recent growth of the cotton seed
industry, it may be well worth Looking
into.
During the coming season theprospects
are favorable for somewhat increased
cotton acreage over last year, but the
total yield will hardly be as large as il
was in 1891. The price of seed has ad.
vanced with the increased demand for it,
and the probability is that almost the
entire seed crop will be marketed during
the coming season.