Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-03
HELPS THE PLANTERS
Far-Reaching Discovery in Con-
nection With Cotton Growing.
PERFECT SEED SEPARATOR
1t is the Work of the Bureau Of Plant
Industry.
PROCESS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Tests Already Made Indicate That It
Should Be Worth About $780,
10000 Annually.
RoCEss OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

One of the most important developments
in the history of cotton culture has just
been perfected by the Department of Agri-
culture, and having been tried for a couple
of seasons and proved to work expected,
1t is just about ready for announcement to
the public. 1t Is a cheap and simple scheme
of seed selection that in experiments al
ready tried has increased the yield of the
crop about 10 per cent. AS the value of
the cotton crop, lint and seed, is about
SIo0OOO,OOO annually, it will be seen that
this would amount to big sum If it were
adopted throughout the whole of the cotton
belt. OF course it will not be so generally
adopted, but the possibilities are as stated
and as it is saving in labor and costs
nothing in fertilizers It will be seen that
the actual money profit to the cotton planter
is much more than the mere volume of in
crease on the crop.
To get back to first principles for the
benefit of those not familiar with cotton
culture it may be said that handling cotton
seed is very difficult business. The seed
are about the size of a beech nut, but COW
cred with a coating of fuzz that, except in
the case of sea island cotton is practically
impossible to remove. The result is that
a handful of seed sticks together and it is
only with difficulty that they can be planted
with drill. In fact, they cannot be planted
with an ordinary drill at all, but need what
is known as forced feed drill. and even
so there is a big waste in planting. Many
more seed are planted than is necessary, and
the plants have to be thinned out which
means labor, and, as has been discovered,
the chances are in favor of thinning out
the best plants and leaving the worst. With
cotton seed at from So to $3.50 a bushel,
this cost is an important factor in setting
out crop
Just as Easy.
The plan that has been devised by the
Department of Agriculture is simple. The
seeds are put through process that leaves
them smooth. The cost for material Is
about cent a bushel. and for labor not
so much. The work can be done in the
winter season when labor Is plenty, and
this is another advantage The exact nature
of this process is not disclosed just yet as
1t is in process of being patented, after
which it will be thrown open to the public
1t can be said, however. that it is so simple
and easy that the wonder is it has not been
thought of before. 1t leaves the seed in
condition to be planted with an ordinary
gravity feed drill, and will allow them to
be planted in hills that can be cultivated
both ways, saving the necessity of thinning,
saving the waste of seed and consequently
a good deal of money in setting out the
crop. Another good thing is that the pro
cessing does not hurt the seed, and the
light ones that are rejected for planting can
ufacture of oil and cotton-seed cake for
cattle feed. This was not true of some of
the old schemes that were tried for pro-
cessing the seed. Moreover the seed after
they are dry may be kept year more be-
fore planting and do not have to be used
wet. as was formerly necessary.
After the smoothing of the seed has been
done comes the real advantage of the
scheme. The previous savings mentioned
are only incidental. With the clean seed
they can be separated just as has been
found profitable in tobacco growing. and
by much the same method. OF course the
seed are much bigger than tobacco seed,
and larger apparatus Is necessary, but 1t
Is cheap ana effective. 1t consists of a
hopper into which the seed are thrown
They fall on a coarse screen much like the
RATHER in a rock crusher. The Jumps of
lint and big pieces of foreign matter are
carried down the screen and run out
through small trough at the end. The
seed fall through the screen upon a second
and finer screen that is just too close to
let the cotton seed through. but which let's
out the Cirt and dust. Then the cleaned
seed run Gown the inclined screen and
tumble into the bottom of a long wooden
chimney, through which is forced a blast
of air f"om d ro,aIy fan. 1t works on the
same principle Gs the tobacco seed sepa-
rator The seed are all churned up by the
air blast. Tie fat. heavy ones go just so
far up the fiue and fall over rifle board
and ont into sack. But the lighter and
defective seed, according to the strength Of
the blast, are carried up and blown out of
the top of the chimney, where they are
caught and saved to make oil cake. The
whole process is about as cheap and SIM
pie as could be imagined.
Results Already Shown
The department has been working in con-
junction with a big mandatory which
during the past season separated 10000
bushels of seed for it's own use. The sepa-
rating machines can be cheaply made; in
ia IF "a m AID IN Of ta ,,Ia TO
tons, and. as they will be patented by the
government, will cost the maker nothing
for royalty.
As to the results that have been obtained
from the light and heavy seed, the de-
partment has made a number of tests, and
finds that. In the ease of tobacco the
heavy, fat seea make the best producing
plants. In one experiment twenty rows
of heavy separated seed were set out and
twenty rows of the ordinary mixed sort.
The rows We're planted alternately SO that
there was no advantage to either in
soil or lCtation. The cleaned and sepa-
rated seed produced 1047 pounds of cot
ton and seed, and the ordinary seed pro-
GuCed only 944 pounds. In another ex-
pertinent the heavy seed produced ! .164
pounds: and the ordinary seed 1915. There
were about twenty experiments altogether,
and the increases from the use of heavy
seed ran from 10 to liz per cent.
Experiments We're made in planting the
separating process. The rather striking
fact developed that while many of the
Iiarts that came up died or were de-
fcctive and diseased, they came, a rule,
decidedly sooner than the perfect plants.
a row from the light seed would be show
ing UP well when the plants from the
heavy seed would be just breaking the
gre ind. This led to the conclusion that
under the old system Of thinning probably
u 6Cod many of the defective young plants
were let live, and the slower-growing. good
Plants were killed of under the impress
sicn they were runts.
Effect on Sea Island Seed.
In sea island seed an even more i'm
nc. liant result Is obtained in running it
trrc ugh the separator. 1t is known that
sea island cotton deteriorates very rapidly
when ii is moved inland, and the supply
OF seed has to be renewed every few sea-
sons. The trouble Is that most upland
stock mixes with the sea island and runs
down the grade rapidly. With the sepa-
rator, the gnner is not only able to save
a large amount of short staple lint that is
in itself good investment. but the seed
is separated fully so that the sea island
variety stays by itself.
OF course, the total usefulness of this
method OF seed treatment and separation