New Iberia enterprise. (New Iberia, La.) 1885-1902, 1900-08-18
THREE PECULIAR COTTON MILLS.
Y y. P. r. FINCH, IN BIRMINGHAM AGE-HERALI

The twentieth century cotton
raiser may be, in the latter decades
at any rate, man very different in
all respects from the cotton grower
that the civil war bequeathed to us.
He may be as Independent and as
much of a wealth accumulator as
his predecessor of the nineteenth
century was dependent and poor.
South Carolina seems to be point
ing way to ultimate success in three
enterprises that need mention with
ont reference to each other, but
simply as three independent point
ers to the possibilities of cotton cul-
ture in the next century.
In Laurens county, at Goldville,
railroad station about midway
between Newberry and Laurens,
Mr.. Blalock, wealthy planter, is
preparing to erect on his plantation
cotton factory to cost about $780,
600. He already has in operation
on his plantation a cotton seed oil
mill. When the proposed cotton
factory is in operation, containing
No n will ahont & O00 snindlas and
! proPortlSBsss ndmbsr q looms;
Mr.. Blalock will be prepared to
carry his seed cotton to commercial
firms, to his own profit, and the
profit of his neigbors and the glory
of his state.
Mr.. Blalock is perhaps the veal
thiest and most resourceful planter
in South Carolina, and the example
he is setting points the way to the
re-establishment of the plantation
on a firm basis; for when the
planter can take to himself the net
profits of all the processes between
the seed form and the commercial
products, he can laugh at low prices
for the raw material, while he meets
the competition Of the world. In
order to do this he must be both a
planter and q manufacturer. There
is no other road to the rehabilitation
Of the planting interest on a foot
ing of assured prosperity, and Mr..
Blalock may be the forerunner of a
long line of millionaire planters.
At Edgefeld a work of similar
nature is going on prosperously..
Seven years ago the Edgefeld Man
ufacturing Company established in
. modest way public ginnery, q
fertilizer factory and an oil mill,
all in one building. About year
ago it added another building, and
in the new building it placed
spindles and looms. Thus amid
the cotton fields Of Edgefeld county
there are at one spot ginnery, an
oil mill, a fertilizer factory and q
cotton mill. The Edgefield Com
pany is revolution in some re-
spects, but it is not revolution as
radical as Mr.. Blalock's, because it
does not grow cotton.
But at Edgefeld seed cotton alone
is purchased. The factory pur-
chases seed cotton directly from the
farmers built-up wagons. The
wagons are loaded in the surround
ing fields, and driven directly to
the factory, where the burden il
automatically unloaded and carried
to the gin stands. It may have
been in bolls an hour before. After
the ginning process is completed
the stripped seeds are carried
automatically either to large seed
storage warehouses or to the oil
mill. II to the latter, they are at
once freed from all dirt and other
foreign matter, and are reginned in
order to secure the short lint left
by the first saws they were SUBJ
jected to. The seeds are then
passed along to the machine for re-
moving the hulls. These hulls are
either stored in bulk to be sold as
food for cattle, or baled for ship
ment, or mixed elsewhere in the
mill with cottonseed meal, thus
forming admirable cattle food.