During ginning operations about 800 pounds of cottonseed were collected for every 500-pound bale of cotton produced. Many of the local farmers who brought their cotton crops to the Ethridge gin would pay for the service by leaving a portion of their seed. Cottonseed was stored in this seed house from which most of it was sold to local mills producing oil for use in cooking oils, soaps, cosmetics and insecticides.
In the gin house a system of conveyor belts took seed removed from the gin stands either to the drive-under seed box on the east side of the gin, or out of the back of the building and across to this seed house.
The hole where this duct entered the seed house can be seen above the door on the north side of the building.
This house is a wooden structure with a raised floor and plank siding. The large shuttered ventilators are a reminder that it was a very dusty place.
Behind the seed house there was a sawmill. The mill was dismantled and its equipment sold, but its foundations are still visible.