Espey Gin Company Going Strong After 126 Years

McLEMORESVILLE (October 2024) — It’s cotton harvesting time in Tennessee. In the local agrarian economy, cotton fields dot the landscape and farmers are harvesting this year’s crops.

Cotton was once a laborious task to hand pick and then transport to the many gins that dotted the southern landscape. Now, the process is simpler with automated harvesting and ginning. While many area towns once had a gin, today, there are few and only one in Carroll County. At one time, there were 13 gins in the county.

The business model is simple: the farmer maintains ownership of the cotton throughout the process. The gin removes the seed, clean and dries the cotton, and bales it for shipment. The gin sells the seed, which is used in many different products.

The Bramley Gin in McLemoresville was originally founded in 1898 by James H. Bramley. One of his sons, J. Adrain Bramley, operated the business until his death. Mr. Orville Pace, a son-in-law, bought the business and continued operating under the name Bramley Gin. After Mr. Pace’s death, his wife, Evelyn Bramley Pace sold the business to Mr. Billy Espey in 1974. After Mr. Espey’s death in 1986, his son, Allen, took over and is still owner and operator of the Gin. The Gin presently operates under the name of Espey Gin Company, Inc. Ginning is a seasonal operation usually running from mid-September thru November. Season has started as early as August 24 (1962 and 1987) and as late as October (1974).

Once the harvesting is in full swing, the Gin operates as much as 24 hours-7 days a week, shutting down only for clean-up and repairs. The number of bales ginned varies with the number of acres planted and the weather conditions. In 1978, 338 bales were ginned compared to 58,645 (22,392 harvested acres) in 2019, and 52,971 bales in 2023. This year’s output is estimated to be less due to weather conditions and fewer acres of cotton being planted. This year’s planting was 60 percent of the acreage planted in 2023, said Allen Espey. Those crops come from Carroll, Weakley, Henry and Gibson counties.

The average number of bales ginned over the last ten years is 40,491 per year with a 50-year average of 19,770 bales. In the early years, seed cotton was brought to the gin in wagons, which were later replaced by trailers. The trailers would average about 6 to 8 bales per load. Modules are now replacing trailers. A module, a freestanding stack of cotton, is produced by dumping cotton into a form known as a module builder. The builder is equipped with a mechanism that compacts the cotton. The tighter the module is compacted, the better it sheds rainfall, and the less seed cotton is lost during storage, loading, hauling, and unloading. The round module will average 3.75 bales each. The round modules are wrapped in a plastic wrap that helps protect seed cotton quantity and quality loss. The principal function of the “Cotton Gin” is to separate lint from seed. These are the basic steps: Modules are unloaded onto a stationary module feeding mechanism. The machine uses rotating spikes to pick the tightly packed module apart and feed the cotton into a suction pickup line. The actual ginning process begins when seed cotton, whether from a trailer or module, enters the pickup line.

The seed cotton then passes through several stages: green-boll trap- removes green bolls. rocks, etc.; feed control- provides even flow of cotton; dryers- removes excessive moisture; cylinder cleaners- removes leaves, trash and dirt, and conditions the cotton for additional cleaning, stick machine- removes langer foreign matter, such as burs and sticks; conveyor-distributor- distributes cotton to each gin stand, extractor-feeder- meters sand cotton uniformly to the gin stand at controllable rates and cleans seed cotton, gin stand- is the heart of the gin, the ginning action is caused by a set of saws rotating between ginning ribs. This action pulls the fibers from the seed, thus separating the lint from the seed; lint cleaners- final clearing stage removes immature seeds; bale press- ginned lint forms into a batt or uniform layer of lint, which is moved into the box of the press where the tramper packs the lint. The press box is rotated and the lint is compressed. Devices in the press box cut an area on both sides of the bale. After the bale is compressed, six to eight bale ties are applied to restrain the lint cotton within certain dimensions. The bale is then released from the press and weighed. The standard for a bale of cotton is 55 inches tall, 28 inches wide, and 21 inches thick, weighing approximately 500 Ibs. After the samples are removed from the cut areas, the bale is tagged for identification, bagged or wrapped for protection, and Ioaded onto trucks for shipment to a government-licensed warehouse for storage, generally in Milan or Humboldt.

One sample is sent to the USDA office in Memphis for classing. Classing is the process of measuring fiber characteristics against a set of established standards/grades, and it determines the dollar value of the bale of cotton.

The second sample goes to the warehouse with the bale of cotton. Other products include medical supplies, twine and candle wicks.

The second-cut linters are incorporated in chemical products found in various foods, toiletries, film and paper.

Hulls are sold for livestock feed, used in the production of synthetic rubber and in petroleum refining.

Cottonseed oil is removed from the inside meat of the seed. Depending on its refinement stage, cottonseed can be used in snack foods such as margarine, baking or frying oils, explosives, cosmetics, rubber, soap, insecticides, and many other products. The de-oiled meats are then dried and ground to produce a 41% protein livestock feed called cottonseed meal.