Cotton Linters: Production, Marketing, and Market Outlets

Excerpts from the report: Cotton linters are the short fibers, or fuzz, remaining on cottonseed after the lint cotton has been removed. Annual production of linters in the United States in recent years has been approximately 1-1/2 million bales valued at about 50 million dollars. Linters represented, in the last 10 years, from 8 to 25 percent of the total value of products obtained from cottonseed, the percentage depending on relative prices of the oil, meal, linters, and hulls. This study was conducted with a view to appraising the effect of changes in varieties of cotton planted and harvesting, ginning, and milling practices on the production, marketing, and market outlets for cotton linters. Information was obtained by the survey method from representative oil mill operators, linters dealers, brokers, and converters throughout the United States during the 1951-52 season, and from secondary sources. A majority of the oil mill operators gave primary consideration to demand and relative prices of various qualities of linters in deciding on the quantity and quality of linters to remove from cottonseed. Also considered important were the differences in linters content of various lots of cottonseed and in type of mill processing equipment. More than nine-tenths of the linters produced in 1951-52 were collected by the flue system, and differed substantially in appearance and foreign matter content from linters collected by the condenser system.