The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-03-22
A GROWING INDUSTRY.
TIE MAGICAL COTTON sEED PROM.
IsES UNTOLD WEALTH.


The Seed as an Offset to Low Prices
for Lint Cotton-India Rubber Said
to Be One of Its Produoss-aow the
Seed Industry Increases the FertiI-
izsr Trade - The Peculiar Lintless
Cotton.
The cotton seed industry has sprung in
the last few years from comparatively
nothing to an enterprise controlled by great
corporations and in which millions Of dol
lars are invested.
The average cotton yield per acre last
year was "A bales. or bale to about 2. %
acres. This means about 1900 pounds Of
seed cotton, Of which 1000 pounds are seed.
In 1000 pounds of seed there are about SO
bushels, calculating 80 pounds to the bushel,
which at the average price of seed nets 20
cents, or Sc 60 to Pa acres, which, added to
the receipts for bale Of cotton, brings the
prodtup considerably.
BIG MONEY IN SEED.
A prominent cotton firm in the CITY col
leoted during past season 81, 500 Is for two
OF It's customers-Georgia farmers, near
Savannah-for seed sold to oil mills. This
seed, and is merely one instance out of nu-
merous others like it. The industry Of rails
ing the seed Is growing rapidly aud about
four-hfths of the seed produced last year
was marketed, where very little Of it was
sold two years ago. The yield from the
seed counterbatanoes to a great extent the
depression to tbs farmer as re-
suit of low prices obtained for
the lint cotton, and instead of being
dumped back on the field for fertilizers il
is now almost all sold to the mills, and COM
mercial fertilizers are used to enrich the
lands.
WILL INCREASE THE PRICE.
There is prospect, too, that cotton seed
will bring far better prices as the products
derived from II are increased. There has
been discovered a mesna for making india
rubber from the oil Of the seed, and expert
ments are now being conducted in the
vicinity Of this city with a view to making
the process cheap enough 10 be profitable
In fact, a good deal Of the product has been
successfully put on the market. The india
rubber is pronounced the genuine article,
and is said 20 be as good as that which comes
from the juice of the oriental rubber tree.
The SEED which will produce an oil which is
one OF the most excellent and wholesome
foods yet discovered, meal which is a per-
feet stock food, a hull which can hardly be
eXcslled as a fertilizer, and besides ell these
an oil which promises to yield 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
Importance the cotton industry itself
NO LIMIT TO IT.
No certain limit can be sch TO its develop
ment, 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
havoring extracts is the black and sluggish
coal tar, yet such is the case, and chemists
are now working to draw quinine from the
same source. There is a possibility that
some day the cotton seed industry may be
the prime yield of the cotton plant.
The report that the large sale Of the COM
merciRl fertilizers this year means an in
creased cotton acreage, and consequently "a
reduced price is a good argument on its
face, but the fact is that most Of the seed
formerly used as a fertilizer on the cotton
fields have been marketed during the past
seas on, and there was nothing 10 do but
supply their place with the commercial ar
ticle.
SELL SEED AND BUY FERTILIZERS.
The profit in the seed has been
90 great even at the price it
now brings that the farmers make great
deal by selling IL and using commercial
fertilizers, which answer almost as we'll in
bn0AE SbB6us Illus tub COkbOH b9Gu INDUSTRY
has called forth an increase in the fertilizer
business, and in that way has indirectly
built up another industry.
The latest development m the cotton seed
industry is perhaps the cultivation Of the
lintless cotton plant in Texas, from which
there is a much larger yield of seed, but no
lint cotton whatever. The MORNING NEWS
has just received a sample OF these seed
from MIR. G. MeDelas, formerly OF Saveu-
nah. but now Of Galveston.
THE LINTLRss COTTON PLANT.
The plant which produces the seed Is
similar to the ordinary cotton plant, but
can stand greater degree of drought. The
seed, which grow in pods or balls, are
smaller than the seed Of the ordinary cotton
plant, and have not quite so large kernel.
but the large increase in the Yield compen-
safes for the small size. The plant, it ia
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.
During the coming season the prospects
are favorable for a somewhat increased cot
ton acreage over last year, but the total
yield will hardly be as large as 1t was in
1891. The price of seed has advanced with
the increased demand for it. and the proba-
bility is that almost the entire seed crop
will be marketed during the coming season