The Harrison times., 1911-04-08
WIDE USE OF COTTON SEED
Few People Have Any Idea of Many
Uses Once Despised Article Is
Now Put-Boon to Sick.

Capt. B. ]. Holmes of New Orleans
has been quoted by the Baltimore
American as saying that not one man
in ten thousand has the remotest idea
of the vast number of uses to which
the once despised cotton seed is now
being put This statement presents
no exaggeration, and even in the
south itself, where alone in this coun-
try the cotton seed is raised, it is ex-
| tremely doubtful if the majority of
| the people even on the plantations
could name a quarter part of these
uses. Captain Holmes enumerates
them thus
From the clean seed are obtained
linters, meats and hulls, the hulls
making the best and most fattening
feed for cattle that has been found.
From the linters are gathered mate
rial for mattresses, felt wads, paper,
rope and a grade Of underwear, and
likewise cellulose, out Of which gun
cotton is made. The meats furnish
oil and meal, the oil after refining be-
ing now in almost universal use in the
kitchens of this and other countries
Before refinement to the edible stage,
the oil is known under many names
such as salad oil, starine, winter oil
and white oil, oleomargarine being
the product Of starine. The white oil
is the chief ingredient in compound
lards. The original oil, also known
as soap stock, has fatty acids used in
the manufacture of soaps, roofing
tar, paints and glycerine, and from
this comes the explosive nitroglycer-
inc. might also add that the meal
aside from its use as cattle provender,
is transformed into bread cake, crack
ers and even candy. Last of all comes
the doctors, who are saying that the
wonderful seed is boon to the sick,
since from its oils an emulsion is pre-
pared that has been known to be Of
value in tuberculosis and other all
ments.
If these by-products Of the cotton
plant are added to the almost count
less uses to which the white fiber it.
self is put, the list would be of d
length to provoke the wonder of the
average man and woman. Aside from
the part that cotton plays in the wear
ing apparel of civilization it is en-
countered In thousand and one other
forms that are not impressive because
they are so common and at almost
every point where human vision may
chance to rest. 1t Is next to impossi-
BILE to get away from cotton; one rubs
up against it from the time he gets
out of bed in the morning until he
draws the coverlet over himself again
at night; it is indispensable to IT,
bath and while we talk loosely about
table linen, very few breakfast tables
escape some contact with cotton; it
Is in every room of the house in some
shape; as he passes out of his front
door 1t stares at him from practically
every window; 1t is in the street car,
the ferry or the railroad train that
takes him to work; in the book or
magazine that he reads meantime@,it 1t
is all about the store or Office or other
place of business; the street vendors
are hawking 1t in hundred forms; it
is in almost every show window; it
bobs up at luncheon; it is somewhere
in the horses harness and in the auto
mobiles trappings, the shoe shine has
to have 1t; to the scrub lady it is an
absolute necessity; every barroom,
cafe and court room has its meas
ure Of the staple; 1t confronts the
diner out and the diner at home the
clubs and hotels are fairly loaded with
it in forms too numerous to men,
tion; the theaters, both the audito-
rum and on the stage present 1t In
vast variety Of shape and color; the
new born infant Is put into swaddling
clothes of cotton and the body is laid
to rest in It; the clergyman, the
pugilist, the barber, the baker, the
butcher, the manicure and the burglar
all find It handy in their business;
the sailing craft, the balloon, the
steamship and the aeroplane use 1t in
the aggregate In enormous quantities;
the jail and the sanctuary must have
cotton we dance in it, swim In it,
pray in It, and 1t is in ever increasing
demand the world over.