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Show 18 EMIGRANT'S GUIDE. ultivating more cotton than can be collected by the same labourers, le~sure is given to cultivate also vegetables for food. Cotton seed has generally been thrown away, or su:ffer~d to remain -a disgusting nuisance auout the cotton gins ; it has sometimes been used as a manure, for which p.urpor;e it is excelleRt. That the neglect of cotton seed is au useless and wanton waste of wealth, cannot be doubted. '£he quantity of oil that might Le taken from the seed woult.l reimburse, at no grea t adt.litiona] exp~nse, tlu~ planter; throwing it to waste, is as ill judged as it would be to pour ou t on the earth the mol asses from a sugar bouse. The enlightened society in Great Britain , instituted at London, for the encouragement 9[ arts, manufactures and commerce, amongst other objects of their attention, have, at di!Terent tjme5, offered pre· mi 1ms for samples of cotton seed oiL In 1783, the society* 1.1eing informed that a consid erable quantity of oil can be obtained from seeds of cott0n, and that after the expres: 5ion of the oil, the remaining cake will afford a strong and hearty fo~d for cattle ~ a1?d that the apparatus for the operation can be applted to the tmll for sugar canes, and worked in the rainy season, at a moderate. exp~nse, "lta'Ve resolv~d, for the foregoing reasons, that th~ procun?g 011 from the seed of cotton is a proper object of a premmm, considered as an encouragement for planters to extend the cul- tivation of cotton, an article essentially necessary to increase the ~nufacture of tbat article in this country." " The society therefore offers as fo'llows : :'.OIL FROM. COTTON SEEDS. To the Planters in any of the Bntlsh Islands of the West In<.lies, who shall express oil from the seed of cotton, and make from the remaining seed hard and dry cakes as food for cattle ; the gold medal. ' ' " Certificates, that not l~ss than one ton of the oil has been expressed, and ~ve hu.ndrcd we1ght of the cakes oLtained, to be proJuced to the soc1~ty w1th two gallons of the oil, and two dozen of tne cakes~ ~ogether With ,a full account of the process, on or before the last 'l'ues· day in Nov~mber, 1785. " For the next greatest quantity, not Jess than half a ton 0f oi] and two hundt'ed weitht of the cakes · tbe silver medal '' ' This certificate was renewed in' 1784 '85 '86 'B7 '8~ '89 vide \"Olr ' 2 ~ 3 , 4 , or ~ o,.. , an d 7 , o f t he rr ran£act'.w ns 'o f the' Soc'i ety.' ' • r.llls ~u?tatron is introduced he!·e to show, that the practicability of makmg od from cotton seed, Is not a recent discovery. It does ~ot .appear that, between 1783 aptl 1789, the Society of Arts obt~1~ed :itny ~amples of either the oil or cake. Their certificate e~htbJts the liberality of the society, but it is evident the members ~ did not. comprehend t~e subject very clearly. Demanding so large .a q~Janhty .as a ton of oil, rendered all experiment abortive, as far as their prermum extended, where a less quantity would· have been produced. All th~ necess.ary details, and what 'is every thing in suph cas.es, the quanh~y of oil to a given ~eight of seed, and th mean "Vol.I. pagc2~1, ~ec. 175. I EMIGRANT'S GUIDE. 181 f extraction could have been determined by a process exhpe~IGeotloly a few' hu~dred trallons' or less, of oil would have been mw ade1ee. Whether the cake, or0 0 refuse, a1r. ter t he 01·1 1· s presse d ou_t , I·S _o f . value or not seems to be of very little consequence. If the o1l, aanftye r the expense' of p~ess 1og anc~ ba~re 11·m g, ·ts o f. .~u ffi c1· en t va1 u e t o justify an attention to 1ts productwn, JS t~e on_ly desideratum. The quantity of oil that cotton seed will give, bas .ne~er. b.een d.etermined with sufficient accuracy to ena'ble us to state Its Ielatlvt" pwduction, with that of the down, to any certain de?ree of accuracy If the estimate made by Mr. Niles* of the quantity of clean cotton, made in the United States in 1816, is correct, there must have been produced in that year, !2.? x;nillion pounds of cotton vro?l. The proportion of clean cntton wool to that of the crude mass, mcluding tlte seed, has been found very nearly as one to four. Persons holding cotton gins are obliged to deliver o?e lb. ~f cleat~ cotton for every four lbs. of the mass in seed, for wh1ch thetr tecc1pts are given. If this proportion is corr~ct, ~1ul no res~lt seems better proved and the estimate of Mr. N deg 1s also rece1ved as accurate, · then 375 000 000 lbs. of cotton seed was wasted in 1816. If one hundred 'pou~ds of seed is allowed to produce one gallon of oil, this mass of seed would have produced 3,, 50,000 :;allons oi. oil, which at 121-2 cent£ per gallon, would amount to $468,750: That this estimate is very much untl~r- rated there 1s no do~b~. H appeats certain, that an annual sum of not lesi than a half mllhon of dollars is thus supinely wasted. There is no other wealth thau human labour, and its products are too painfully obtained to justify or excuse their wilful loss. The cotton seed in bulk, near the gias, is an intolerable nuisance, as resp~ cts its smell and appeanmce. Hogs and cows devour it with great avidity. So much down, however, remains upon the seed, that it frequently destroys the former kind fif animal. When the seed remains some time in bulk, if exposed to rains, the down rots, -and leaves the seed a nutricious food, particularly for hogs. From the data given above, any person, by knowing the manual force at his command, can calculate in a few moments the prospect of gain by removing into a cotton district. The tables, page 9, of this treatise, ~exhibits the ~elative value of five stap l~s, sugar, cotton, rice, tobacco, and indigo, but doei 1 ot determine the respective value of those staples, and that of grain, or any other product ef the middle, northern, or eastern states. Any person knowin: his reve nue from the latter, can, with mathematical precision, caJculate the benefits of change to the cultivation of the former. One-fourth -of the amount is allowed for the expP-nse of cleaning cotton from the seed, the purchase of duck, and cordage, and transportation to market. From individual experience the author of this treatise is fully convinced, that this is an ample allowance, if taken generally. A description (i)f the machinery made use of to free the down from the seed, would be unsatisfactory; it is sufficient to say , th at th gins "~ See page 121?1 |
