What did they do with the 1000 pounds of seed left from the ginning of the wagon?
Prior to the 1930’s the farmer would take his wagon full of cotton seed back to the farm – save what he needed to plant next year’s crop and then “dump” the remainder in the creek bed. It was sometime during the 1930’s that farmers began to “mix” cotton seed with their cattle feed….this was excellent supplement for them ….plus made the cattle’s coats very healthy and shiny ! The farmer also discovered he could mix cotton seed with the soil and found it to be very good for the crops he would grow… Ultimately it was discovered that oil could be pressed from the cotton seed and hundreds of uses were developed. Cotton gins all over the country began building “seed houses” to store this now very valuable by-product of the cotton boll.
