The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1915-03-31
COTTON SEED
OIL INDUSTRY
A Readable Article On the South's
Young Industry, Written by W..
H. Fowler, and Published in the
York News.

We are indebted to the Chinese,
perhaps, more than to any others
for the discovery of the value of
cotton seed oil. Twu thousand years
ago they expressed oil from their
cotton seed, with hand press, and
burned it in crude lamps. But they
evidently NEGLECTED to mention it
to their neighbors," and we all know
they do not advertise extensively.
Nearly two thousand years later
the Southern part o. the United
States, realized the value of the cot
ton seed, for it's oil bearing proper
ties, and in small way expressed
the oil and shipped it to foreign
countries.
The manufacture of cotton seed
oil began in England. The records
show, that in 1870 the annual crush
in that country was 100000 tons,
making it the leading cotton seed
oil producing country in the world.
The seed had to carried long
distances, and the tendency of the
seed to heat when stored, and, to
deteriorate from this cause, prevent
ed England from ever excelling in
the manufacture.
Fifty years later the French be-
gan the manufacture and were much
more successful as co quality-they
used Egyptian seed, which brought
the raw material much nearer to the
factory, making the storage period
shorter.
Just prior to the War Between the
States, the French were attracting
attention by the quality of their oil,
but never approached the quantity
of seed crushed by the English.
For three quarters of a century
cotton seed was a waste product of
the Southern cotton plantations.
William Darby, an American,
writing in 1917, in his work on "The
Emigrant's Guide to the Western
and Southwestern States" calls at
tention to this, saying: "There is
no doubt that the neglect of cotton
seed is a useless and wanton waste
of wealth."
Rhode Island was among the very
first to manufacture cotton seed oil.
I cannot give the exact date when
the mill was established, but Niles
Register of October 28th, 1920, re-
ports as follows: "Oil of cotton seed
is selling at Providence, R. l., at 80
cents per gallon. The French chem
lists say, two and one-half gallons
may be made from one hundred
pounds of seed. The cotton seed was
hitherto thrown away as useless"
In Mills Statistics of South Caro-
lima, published in 1926, we find this
statement: "Mr. Benjamin Waring,
one of the earliest settlers of the
town of Columbia, established the
first oil, paper and grist mill here,
and expressed a very good cotton
seed OIL"
Similar experiments were con-
Quoted in Virginia as early as 1929;
in Georgia in 1888, and in Alabama
in 1885.
The industry developed very slow
ly at first. Its supporters were few
in number, but loyal and diligent.
Not before 1880 did the indus
try attain to anything like CONNER
cial Importance in the South.
Today there are more than 900
oil mills in the United States, with
capital of more than one hundred
million dollars.
In the early eighties South Caro-
lima could only boast of three mills,
at Charleston, Greenville and Ches-
ter. Now we have one hundred mills
with a capital of S4,032,271.
So far as the United States is con-
cerned the crush of seed is and must
necessarily remain Southern mon
opoly.
Mills are operated in England,
Germany, China, India and South
America, but no where, are the pro-
ducts of these, equal in quality or
even approximately so, to those pro-
clo4