Los Banos Rotary Club History
Tells History of Cotton Farming

Rotary Club members have a new and deeper knowledge of cotton farming this week, following a talk given at the club luncheon Tuesday noon by W. S. Belden, chief chemist in charge of laboratory and refineries for the Producers Cotton Oil Company of Fresno.

Historically, Belden said that cotton, as known to western civilization, is comparatively new, though in India, South America and Mexico it has been grown and used for nearly 5,000 years.

In America, cotton farming was introduced in Virginia even before the Revolutionary war, but developed very slowly and did not become of major importance until after Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin.

Today, Belden said, the cotton itself is less valuable than its many by-products, of which the most important is cottonseed oil. Used extensively for cooking, as the primary ingredient of margarine, and for the manufacture of processed cooking fats such as Crisco, cottonseed oil today commands a price of from 27 to 28 cents a pound, whereas a few years ago 9 cents was considered a good price.

Another of the valuable by-products is the linters, or fine cotton fibers left on the see after the staple cotton fiber is removed by ginning. Linters is mostly used in the manufacture of explosives, but also has a ready market with furniture manufacturers as a filler material.

Cottonseed hulls, which are almost 100 per cent protein, find a ready market as cattle feed, as does cotton cake, the residue left after extraction of the oil. Having a high protein content, cottonseed cake is considered one of the finest dairy and beef cattle fattening feeds on the market. Another by-product of importance, Belden explained, is cottonseed oil soap stock, the residue taken from the oil in the process of refining. Soap stock is used extensively by the country’s larger soap manufacturers in their products.

November 19, 1946

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