Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1899-03-27
BY-PRoDUCTs OF COTTON PLANT
The Hope of Discouraged Planters

uC 11OpO VI OlSSOu1o 5C0 4cIAlC10
AS long as the planters persist in
raising more cotton than the world
can consume at paying price it is
not to be expected that there will be
an advance to a much higher and
more permanent level of the cotton
markets than has obtained during the
past two years. Nevertheless, the
case of the cotton planters is not alto
gether hopeless. Cotton lint is not
the only valuable product of the cotton
crop, as was the case fifteen or twenty
years ago. We now have by-products
from the crop which are worth $780,
100000 or more annually, and scientists
and inventors are theoretically busy
widening the field of consumption and
creating new industries to utilize cot
ton poducts
By the single discovery of cotton
seed oil S15,000,OO0 annually was ADDED
to the value Of the cotton crop. At
present not more than one-third of
the seed crop finds it's way to the oil
mills. But the uses for oil are almost
daily increasing in number and the
demand seems to grow with the pro-
duction. There is room, therefore,
for the crude oil business to grow to
be worth $40,000,000 or more a year.
The seed meal and seed hulls trade
is quite large at present, but not near
ly so large as may be expected within
few years. These are the chief and
better known by-products of the cotton
plant. Each is capable of being sub
divided many times and the chemists
are busy dividing them.
The stalk of the cotton plant is now
receiving SPECIAL attention as a fiber
producer. The question of utilizing
the stalk in making fiber for cotton
bagging was discussed several years
ago, but, according to the Scientific
American, it was only recently that
machine was perfected for working the
stalks into bagging. Some of this
cotton stalk bagging has been tested
and pronounced excellent for the pur
pose. 1t is strong and clean and does
not readily ignite. Five tons Of good
stalks will yie1d about 1, 800 pounds of
first-class fiber. A this rate the an
nual crop will produce all of the bag
ging needed to wrap the lint and leave
a surplus to be devoted to other pur-
poses. 1t is predicted that machin
cry for making coarse mattings from
the fiber will be produced shortly
The Scientific American expresses the
opinion that if the experiments which
are now being made with the fiber are
successful sit will not be many years
before the industry will assume gigan-
tic proportions.
The root of the plant is also being
experimental with. The root of the
Egyptian cotton yields a dug which
has the properties of ergot. Chemists
have found a somewhat similar sub
stance in the root of the American
plant This has not yet been fully de-
veloped. A difference has been de-
tected in ne properties of the roots
of different kinds of cotton, long sta
pie and short staple, hence it is prob
able that several drugs may be eX-
tracted from the different varieties OF
roots. Experiments have shown that
cotton-hull ashes are very valuable for
furnishing a cheap potash for tobacco
crops, and there is quite demand for
the ashes in the tobacco growing dis
tricts of Pennsylvania, Virginia and
North Carolina. This fertilizer should
not escape the attention Of the South
Carolina planters. It may be just the
thing they need to make their pine
lands produce fine tobacco.
The foregoing merely touches upon
the possibilities Of the cotton crop in
by products, but it serves to indicate
what has been and what is being done
to make these products valuable. The
Scientific American thinks, indeed,
that it may not be a very great many
years before lint will be the least val
liable part of the cotton crop. -Savan-
nah News.