The Pickens sentinel. (Pickens, S.C.) 1911-2016, 1913-09-11
State Supervision Asked by Crushers

State Supervision
For the first time in the his
tory of the cotton seed manu-
featuring industry, an effort Is
to be made this year under Of
fetal State supervision to pro-
vide for an intelligent and care
full marketing of the seed to be
crushed and converted into oil
and into meal and hulls. South
Carolina is to be the first State
in the United States actually to
do something that has been
talked about for some years by
both the sellers of cotton seed
and the cotton seed manufac-
turers throughout the cotton
belt. Heretofore the buying of
cotton seed has been upon a
thoroughly unbusiness like ba-
sis. Buyers scattered over the
State gathered the seeds from
the farmers, irrespective of con-
dition or quality, buying on
commission and deductions be-
ing made by the mills for bad
seed upon the arrival of a car
load lot at the plant. The policy
has been a thoroughly cutthroat
policy.
In the State of South Caro-
lima an average Of about 800, 600
tons Of seed is crushed annually,
yielding about 5000 tons of
cottonseed meal. All but about
DC, 900 tons of it, according to
official figures, is used for fer
tilizcrs, the &c, 1000 tons being
, used for feed purposes. No
: seed is bought outside the State
and the production Of seed in
the State is not sufficient to en-
i, able all the mills to run to cap
acitY.
+ GENESIS Of MOVEMENT.
at the recent meeting Of the
: South Carolina Cotton Seed
Crlshers' association at Lake
: Toxaway, N. c., a special com
mittco, consisting of b. Il. Tay-
lor of Columbia, j. j. Lawton
Of Huntsville, John II. Stevens
Of Kershaw, John A. lludgens
of Pelzcr and H. G. Brown Of
Augusta was appointed, follow
ing an address by Commission
er Watson, in which the i'm
pOrtancc of utilizing this con
ccntratc feed properly wasstress-
ed, to look carefully into the
matter Of better marketing Of
cotton seed and and to adopt if
possible, a practical scheme for
grading cotton seed, and a scale
Of deductions for off" seed.
This committee a few days
ago requested a conference with
Commissioner Watson, j.. n.
Harper of Clemson college and
f.. w. Dabbs of the South Car
DINA State Farmers union.
The conference was called for
5 o'clock Yesterday afternoon in
the Offices Of the department of
agriculture at the State house.
All were present with the ex-
ccption of President Dabbs, who
could not get to Columbia, but
who had requested Commissions
cr Watson to represent the far
mcrs' union at the conference.
BY invitation of Commissioner
Watson, however, j. Whitner
Reid, State secretary, attended
the conference, as did also w.
b. West, assistant secretary of
the crushcrs' association, and
A. G. Summers, State chemist.
B. e. Taylor, secretary of the
seed crushers' association, thor
oughlv presented the matter,
outlining the difficulties now en-
Countcred in securing the seed,
and showing how it is impossi-
bletO sccLrc prime meal or good
oil from good seed mixed indis-
criminatcly with damaged seed.
He pointed out the increasing
tendency toward the use of
meal for feed purposes and
stressed the Importance to the
agricultural industry of the
State for meal to be made of
such a quality that the maxi
mum of benefit to the animal
will result, He frankly went
into the details Of the milling
business and showed the neces-
sit.7 for an intelligent method
of purchasing seed by grade for
the mutual benefit of the far
mer and manufacturer. Sec
rotary Tay lor outlined briefly a
scale for grading which he said
han boon agreed upon by the
committee as fairer than me-
thOdS hnrntnf0ra nn1nlnNnl nnl