The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-11-30
OUR GREAT STAPLE.
Valuable By-Products of Cotton.
Scientific American.

markets of Japan and the far East fol
our cotton has given the Southern
growers slight hope for better times;
but, while the prospects of another
large crop keep prices down, ard affect
the planters disastrously, science is
steadily laboring to widen the field of
consumption and to create new indus
tries that will utilize all of the by-pro-
ducts of the crop. The achievements in
this direction have been so noteworthy
in the past that one is led 20 place
implicit confidence in the promises
for the future. By the single dis
coyery of the value Of the cotton seed
for manufacturing oil and cotton-seed
meal, some ten to fifteen million dol
lars were added to the receipts OF the
annual cotton crop. Now that an
enormous industry has been built up
and permanently established for con-
verting the cotton seed into oil, the
question of utilizing other parts OF the
cotton plant for commercial purposes
has come rapidly to the front.
Originally the lint was considered
the only valuable part of the cotton
crop, and the seeds, the stalks, the
roots and hulls were either burned on
the land or turned under the soil by
the plow to increase the fertility of
the land. 1t was supposed that the
cotton drew so much fertility from the
soil that it would soon rob it of all
power for plant production and in
time make it worthless. Scientific
Investigations and analysis Of the soil
have demonstrated, however, that, OF
all the staple crops, cotton imposes
the slightest drain upon the land. By
applying special fertilizers, all OF the
crop can be removed year after year
without materially injuring the soil.
Thus cotton has been raised on the
same plantations for over half CEN
tury, and the land to-day is almost as
fertile as when the virgin soil was
first broken with the old wooden plow.
This demonstration has led to i'm
portant results. After the cotton
seed, the cotton-seed hulls were
selected for scientific investigation.
The hulls Of cotton crop constitute
about half the weight OF the ginned
seed. These hulls are hard, dry, and
apparently useless, and they are COW
cred with fuzzy lint that further de-
tracts from their appearance. In fact,
until very recently they had no prac-
teal value, and they were disposed of
in various ways by different planters.
The majority returned them to the
soil to help fertilize it; but analysis
showed that their constituent ele-
ments did not enrich the land to any
great extent.
But as substitutes for hay the cot
ton-seed hulls are, of incalculable value.
Heretofore the bulls have been used
by good many Of the cotton-seed
mills for fuel, aud as fuel they are
worth about 80 cents to 80 cents per
ton, but as animal food they are worth
far more. Experiments were first
made few years ago in the vicinities
of the oil manufacturing centcrs, such
as Memphis, New Orleans, Houston,
Little Rock, Raleigh, and Atlanta.
It was found that when mixed with
condensed foods the hulls were readily
eaten by the animals, and that they
were Of great value in helping TO di-
gest and assimilate bran, cracked corn,
and meal. Moreover, it was proved
by a succession Of feeding tests that
10 per cent Of the protein Of the hulls
was digestible. So per cent Of the
fiber, 40 per cent Of the nitrogen ex
tract, and II per cent Of the fat. The
hulls are light and bulky, but other
wise they make good substitute for
hay in the South, where grass crops
have always been notoriously small
and Inferior. The hulls are baled or
pressed into sacks, aud in this con-
dition they keep for long time.
When packed away in bulk, like hay,
they fermens and heat.
Now that the cotton seeds and hulls
having been pro6tably disposed of,
the stems of the plants have attracted
attention, and already they have been
successfully utilized. AS a by-pro-
duct of the cotton crop, the stems
promise to prove as important as the
hulls. The plants Of the cotton crop
have long ranked in the South as a
coarse animal food, about equal to the
same quantity Of rye, wheat, or oat
straw. After the crop was harvested
the animals were generally turned
loose on the land, and they would eat