“There isn’t one man in ten thousand who has the remotest
idea of the vast number of uses to which the once despised
cotton-seed is now being put,” said Captain B. J. Holmes, of New
Orleans.
“From the clean seed are obtained linters and meats and
hulls, the hulls making the best and most fattening feed for
cattle that has yet been found. From the linters are gathered
material for mattresses, felt wads, papers, 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
being 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, stearine,
winter-oil and white-oil, oleomargarine being the product of
stearine. 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 nitroglycerine.
I might also add that the meal, aside from its use as cattle
provender, is transformed into bread, cake, crackers and even
candy. Last of all come the doctors, who are saying that this
wonderful seed is a boon to the sick, since from its oils an
emulsion is prepared that has been known to be of value in
tuberculosis and other ailments.”--Baltimore _American_.
(3371)
=Utilizing Soap-suds=--See SAGACITY SUPPLEMENTING SCIENCE.
=Utilizing Spider Threads=--See NATURE AIDING SCIENCE.
=Utilizing the Best We Have=--See CONSERVATION OF REMAINDERS.