rotation of the drum the seed fall back on themselves within the drum and are thus cushioned against direct impact with the interior metal walls of the drum the manner in which this is accomplished will be set forth in detail below it was found that the speed of the drum should be maintained substantially constant and that for the embodiment presented herein a substantially constant rotational speed of less than about 30 revolutions per minute and preferably within the range of about 18 to 22 revolutions per minute produced good results it was found that these conditions provided gentle delinting of the fuzzy seed and allowed recovery of batches of virtually undamaged delinted seed suitable for replanting the lint on the fuzzy seed is dried and hydrolyzed in the reaction chamber 34 and the hydrolyzed lint is carried off through the discharge duct 42 through the fan 40 to the lint cyclone and collection bin 38 after the lint has been dried and hydrolyzed in the reaction chamber 34 and carried off to the lint cyclone and collection bin 38 the delinted seed is removed from the reaction chamber through a discharge gate 50 the delinted seed is then.