The morning news., 1898-12-19
VALUABLE RY-PRODUCTs OF COT

AS long as the planters persist in raising
more cotton than the world can consume
at a paying price, it is not to be expected
that there viii be an advance to much
higher and permanent level of the cotton
markets than has obtained during the past
two years. Nevertheless the case of the
cotton planters is not altogether hopeless.
Cotton lint is not the only valuable pro-
auct of the cotton crop, as was the case
fifteen or twenty years ago. We now have
by-products from the crop which are
worth $2O0O00OO or more annually, and
scientists and inventors are energetically
busy widening the field Of consumption and
| creating new industries to utilize cotton
products.
BY the single discovery of cotton seed oil
SIS, 600 O00 annually was added to the value
of the cotton crop. AT present not more
than one-third of the seed crop finds its
way to the oil mills. But the uses for oil
are almost daily increasing in number,
and the demand seems to grow with the
I production There is room, therefore, for
| the crude oil business to grow to be worth
|
and seed-hulls trade is quite large at pres
| ent but not nearly so large as may be
expected within a few years. These are the
chief and better known by-products of the
cotton plant Each lis capable of being
sub-divided many times and the chemists
are busy dividing them.
The stalk of the cotton plant is now re-
ceiving special attention as a fiber pro-
ducer. The question of utilizing the stalk
in making fiber for cotton bagging was
| ing TO the Scientific American, it was only
| recently that a machine was perfected fol
working the stalks into bagging. Some Of
this cotton stalk bagging has been testet
and pronounced excellent for the purpose
It as strong and clean, and does not read
lily ignite. Five tons of good stalks will
yield about 800 pounds of first-class fiber
Al this rate the annual crop viii produce
all of the bagging needed to wrap the lin
and leave a surplus TO be devoted to othe
purposes 1t is predicted that machinerl
for making coarse mattinss from the fibe
viii be produced shortly. The Scientific
American expresses the opinion that if tn
experiments which are now being mad
with the fiber are successful, lit will no
be many years before the industry viii as
sumo gigantic proportions"
The root of the plant is also being eX
perimented with. The root of the Egyp
tian cotton yields a drug which has IN
properties of ergot. Chemists have foun
a somewhat similar substance in the roc
of the American plant. This has not ye
been fully developed. A difference has bee
detected in the properties of the roots c
different kinds of cotton, long staple an
short staple, hence it is probable that se1
= eral drugs may be extracted from the di1
\ ferent varieties of roots.
Experiments have shown that cottor
q huh ashes are. very valuable for furnish
, ing a cheap potash for tobacco crops, an
ther& Is quite a demand for the ashes
the tobacco growing districts of Pennsy
- vania, Virginia and North Carolina. Tn
r fertilizer should not escape the attento
- of South Carolina planters. 1t may be ju
e the thing they need to make their pin
h lands produce fine tobacco.
2 The foregoing merely touches upon Il
a possibilities of the cotton crop in by-pr'
e duets, but it serves TO indicate what h,
IL been and what is being done to make the
products valuable. The Scientific America
thinks. indeed that it may not be vel
= great many years before the lint will
l. the least valuable part of the cotton Gro