Cotton 
29 
made at home from cotton grown in India. China furnishes an even 
larger market than India for foreign cotton goods, but her foreign 
trade is not so well developed as India’s. 
The by-products of cotton. The consumption of the cotton fibers 
in clothing, homes, and industries does not tell the full story of the 
cotton farmers’ contribution to the world’s market. We have yet 
to consider the cotton seeds that were separated from the fibers in the 
gin (page 3). Their weight is twice as great as that of the fibers, 
and their bulk for the full crop is enormous. 
Cottonseed oil. For many years the accumulation of the seeds 
was a great annoyance to the cotton farmer, who got rid of them by 
burning them or dumping them into the river. Now that the value 
of the oil they contain is known, they yield him an important part 
of his profit. The oil which is pressed out is an excellent food for 
man. It is like olive oil, and serves as a substitute for butter and 
lard. The oil is also manufactured into soap, candles, and plates for 
phonograph records. 
Oil cake. The “cake” that is left when the oil is extracted is one of 
the best foods for dairy cows; moreover, the manure from cake-fed 
cows is a good fertilizer. Cotton farmers are learning that by keep- 
ing cows they can reap three profits, — a money profit from the fiber, 
a food profit from the cake-fed cows, and a soil profit from the 
manure. Dairymen are willing to pay such high prices for cotton- 
seed cake that it is profitable to ship it to the Northern states and 
Canada, and even to western Europe. 
The hulls. Half the weight of the seed is the hull that is taken off 
before the rest is made into oil and cake. For a long time the hulls 
were burned to furnish power for the oil presses, and the ashes were 
used for fertilizing the soil, especially for tobacco and vegetables. 
Now the hulls are used instead of hay in fattening cattle for market. 
CONCLUSION 
We have now traced the story of cotton through the field of pri- 
mary production, along various transportation routes, through the 
complicated manufacturing field, into the field of consumption. 
For almost every commodity a similar story can be written, with 
chapters on primary production, transportation, manufacturing, and 
consumption. Of course the chapters would vary in length and 
interest with different commodities. Thus the first chapter of the 
story of wood or marble would be very different from that of cotton. 
For some products the manufacturing chapter would be brief; or it