COTTONSEED FRAGMENT CONTAMINATION AND FABRIC IMPERFECTIONS

Abstract

ABSTRACT Three suspected categories of seed-coat-fragment contamination in cotton lint were investigated. These were chalazal chips, seed damage, and immature seed. The most important variable for the first category was the work, as estimated by a ballistic pendulum apparatus, required to remove lint from the chalazal, rounded end of the cottonseed. In the second category, the percent damage in acid-delinted samples was selected. In the third, the coefficient of variation for cottonseed diameter was the prime variable. Fabric was woven for each of the cottons and the number of seed-coat fragments on the surface of the fabrics was counted. For the group of cottons used in this study, chalazal detachment work accounted for 16% of the variability in the fragments on the fabric; percent damaged seed, 1%; and the seed size coefficient of variation, 73%. Apparently, seeds less than 3.73 mm in diameter, when present in the seed size distribution, were the major source of seed-coat-fragment contamination for this study.