Oil and Meal Yields Per Acre from Cottonseed, Peanuts and Soybeans

Excerpts from the Introduction: Military events that followed the attack on Pearl Harbor made it necessary for United States farmers to expand tremendously their acreages of peanuts and soybeans. Farmers set all-time records with these crops in 1942, expanded them further in 1943, and are expected to plant still greater acreages in 1944. Farmers were encouraged to expand their production of peanuts and soybeans primarily to obtain much needed oil that we were no longer able to import. Farmers have done exceedingly well; they have planted what their Government asked them to plant. They have planted peanuts for oil; they have planted soybeans for oil; and they have planted cotton, which also produces oil. Each of the three crops produces high protein meals also. In addition there is the cotton lint, hulls, and linters from the cotton crop and hay from the peanut crop. Every Southern farmer cannot grow peanuts or soybeans. Not all of them can grow cotton. Many can grow cotton and one of the other two, but few can produce successfully all three of these oil-bearing crops. This study was made to show for specific areas the comparative advantage of producing cottonseed or peanuts and cottonseed or soybeans for oil and meal. Cotton lint, the most important product of the cotton plant, has been omitted from the present analysis, as well as cottonseed hulls and linters; also peanut hay from the peanut crop.