ply the resulting manure to the soil. When this is done,
from 80 to 90% of the fertilizing material of the meal is recovered in
the manure, only 10 to 20% being converted by the animal into meat and
milk. The profit derived from the 20% thus removed is a very large one.
These facts indicate that we have here an agricultural product the
market price of which is still far below its value as compared, on the
basis of its chemical composition, either with other feeding stuffs or
with other fertilizers. Though it is probably destined to be used even
more extensively as a fertilizer before the demand for it as a feeding
stuff becomes equal to the supply, practically all the cotton seed meal
of the south will ultimately be used for feeding. One explanation of
this condition of things is that there is still a large surplus of
cotton seed which cannot be manufactured by the mills. Another reason is
found in the absence of cattle in the south to eat it.

With the consideration of cotton seed oil and meal we have not, however,
exhausted its possibilities. Cotton seed hulls constitute about half the
weight of the ginned seed. After the seed of Upland cotton has been
passed through a fine gin, which takes off the short lint or linters
left upon it by the farmer, it is passed through what is called a
sheller, consisting of a revolving cylinder, armed with numerous knives,
which cut the seed in two and force the kernels or meats from the
shells. The shells and kernels are then separated in a winnowing
machine. This removal of the shell makes a great difference in the
oilcake, as the decorticated cake is more nutritious than the
undecorticated. For a long time these shells or hulls, as they are
called, were burned at oil mills for fuel, 2-1/2 tons being held equal
to a cord of wood, and 4-1/3 tons to a ton of coal. The hulls thus
burned produced an ash containing an average of 9% of phosphoric acid
and 24% of potash--a very valuable fertilizer in itself, and one eagerly
sought by growers of tobacco and vegetables. It was not long, however,
before the stock-feeder in the South found that cotton seed hulls were
an excellent substitute for hay. They are used on a very large scale in
the vicinity of oil mills in southern cities like Memphis, New Orleans,
Houston, and Little Rock, from 500 to 5000 cattle being often collected
in a single yard for this purpose. No other feed is required, the only
provision necessary being an adequate supply o