The Port Gibson reveille. [volume] (Port Gibson, Miss.) 1890-current, 1894-12-21
COTTON OIL PRODUCTS.


9PSS~u Oh SOblOu Oil anu lJs pFOu
Ucts
Mr. President Of the Texas Cotton
Palace, Ladies and Gentlemen
think myself happy, Mr.. President
that | am permitted to deliver on
this occasion an address on "Cottor
| Oil Products, Their Nature, Virtues
improvements aud COnsumptiOn;" tC
speak of product whose victoriou:
march in less than a quarter Of cen.
tury from an outcast on the barren
hillside to position of honor at the
kings table far exceeds and surpass-
es the fair5 tales of Cinderella OF
Of an Aladdin.
In one of Byron's beautiful images
he tells OF hero who
Bound bleeding and alone,
Passed a desert TO a throne.
It is my happy privilege in recount
ing the rise Of the cotton-seed, in ev-
cry one Of which there is drop of
oil, to speak of product that has
brought more happiness, more pleas
ure, more prosperity, than all the
czars Of the Russias, than all the
thrones, than all the kings, and all
the queens, from Solomon to VictO-
ria. In the year 1888 II was repre-
sented in London that oil might be
procured from cottOn-seeds and a
cask of the seed was brought from
the West Indies by the Society OF
Arts, an organization formed and en-
gagged in the encouragement of art.
manufactures and commerce. Ex-
perlments were made in the presence
Of large cOncourse Of people at a
mill IN London, and, as a cOnse-
quence, the Society Of Arts offered q
premium fo- a patent that would ex-
tract cottOn-seed oil from the cotton
seed. This premium consisted Of a
gold and silver medal. The records
Of the society fail to show that its
medals were ever awarded, though
many experiments were made at that
time. The first attempt to crush
cotton-seed in our country and ex-
tract oil from it was made at Match
ez, Miss, in 1884. 1t likewise was
a failure. Thirteen years later, in
New Orleans, in the year 1847, Mr..
Frederick Good made q second ven
ture, and it resulted in q heavy pc
cuniary loss, and years afterward.
when an old man, when this industry
had achieved success, and was bring
ing millions upon millions OF dollars
annually TO the south, Mr.. Good
would exhibit a little bottle of oil
with the remark that that little bot
tie Of oil had cost him over $l2, 900.
Ten years later, however, the expert
ments were again made and were at
tended with more success, and Mr.
Paul AIdige, Of New Orleans, well
and favorably known by many Of the
old settlers Of Texas, crossed the
ocean, visited Marseilles and watched
and studied the process Of refining
oil from the Egyptian cottOn-seed,
and the machinery that was then
used on the Continent in the devel-
opment of this industry. Mr.. r.Aldige
re-crOssed the ocean, returned to
New Orleans, organized q company,
and for the first time this venture
showed signs OF success. Now comes
the principal cause Of amazement in
the history Of the development Of the
cotton seed.
After the capitalists had been per-
suaded that this experiment was a
success, MIR. Aldige found it nearly
an infpossibility 10 convince the cot
ton planter and to induce him to load
up his seed and send it to market.
The planter could think of nothing
but the cotton in the bale the cot
ton-seed was too small a matter for
him to think about, and so it was
turned over to the cOlored man, and
right here is where the coloFed man
comes in In the development of this
product, concerning which, however,
we will discuss later. Mr.. Aldige,
after having an agent out on the
road for eighteen months, could Sc
cure only 1854 tons Of seed. Think
of it, Only 1854 tons in eighteen
months, and tell me, men of Texas,
il you know of mill in all the south
that crushes less than 10. 600 tons a
year. And yet, in 1855, Mr.. .Aldige's
agent, after riding on horseback for
eighteen months up and down and
along the banks of the Mississippi,
found difficulty in persuading the
planter to sell him seed, because they
believed it would be q loss of labor
TO team il TO the river. The civil
war checked the growth Of this in
dustry, and compelled a cessation on
the part of Mr.. Aldige and many 9TH
ers who had by this time embarked
in this enterprise. The necessities,
however, begOtten OF Il civil war, in
creased the growth of this industry
more in four years than ell the cx
periments of the scientists in the
century just previous. Before the
war the mills, at a considerable ex
pense, would have the hulls hauled
off and dumped, and then the cattle
raisers would pay men to watch their
cattle and prevent them from eating
these hulls. During the war, when
the Mississippi was blockaded and
foodstuffs became scarce, the south
ern farmer was compelled, out Of ne-
cessity, to allow the cattle to feed on