Farm Relief by Aid of Chemistry
Stewart, Robert
444 THE COMMONWEAL September 4, I929 splendid trees and a house that badly needed fixing. Three or four of our neighbors were in exactly the same circumstances, and together we set our faces...
...Cork was formerly the most desirable form of insulating material, but the world's supply of cork is not keeping pace with the world's demand...
...Joan BV~K~R...
...Perhaps the solution of the farm problem lies with the industrial chemist rather than with the politician or even with the farmer himself...
...The local carpenters formed a union and sent their rate up from $3 to $6 a day...
...A ton of sugar cane will produce 500 pounds of wet bagasse, and the price paid by the insulating board manufacturing company is $.25 per ton...
...The proposal to use cornstalks for the manufacture of paper opens up all kinds of possibilities regarding this most important crop...
...One afternoon two friendly ladies drove out on the street toward the city gate...
...This rubber is of high quality, as indicated by the experiments of the Bureau of Standards which reports that "experiments indicate that properly prepared guayule rubber will compare favorably with plantation Hevea rubber...
...During I927, IO,OOO tons of baled cornstalks were collected by this company for the production of paper at an average cost of $8 per ton...
...The silly smile, the restless eyes were ever in evidence...
...From these straw products roofing cement, auto enamel, metal paint, carbon valuable for various industrial uses such as in the manufacture of rubber tires, auto top dressing, barn paint, fly spray, stock dips, germicides, boiler scale remover, rust eliminator, etc., have been produced and are now offered for sale on the market...
...The resultant solution is very rich in pentosans which have value as adhesives and as stock feed, particularly when mixed with alfalfa meal...
...Ghi/dren Asleep The night is still, the tides of sleep are flowing Fluently, tenderly, over, beneath, above Their delicate limbs and quenching their eyes' bright glowing...
...The Bureau of Chemistry of the Department of Agriculture has studied the possibilities of the use of this waste in industry quite thoroughly...
...A factory has been established at Tilton, Illinois, by the Cornstalks Products Company...
...It is now manufactured into insulating board, and a new market is thus created for a by-product of the farm...
...However, those at feast in the bridegroom's upper room did not need that their hearts be warmed or lifted up...
...The United States Forest Products Laboratory at Madison, Wisconsin, has developed a process for producing a new type of insulating material from wheat straw...
...625 to 640 pounds of carbon residue...
...Adieu, poesy and poverty...
...It was the bride's folk who needed comforting...
...Sugar cane bagasse, the waste product left after the sugar has been extracted, was formerly used only as a fuel...
...The oil is used for miner's lamp oil, in the production of soap and soap powders, glycerin, nitroglycerin and pitch, which is employed, in turn, in the manufacture of roofing paint and composition roofing...
...It is valuable as a paint and varnish remover, it is used in the manufacture of bakelite and to make synthetic resins, and as an anti-knock substance in gasoline, and it may some day really supplant gasoline as a fuel for motor cars and other combustion engines...
...See also, how the little granddaughter, child of thy son, doth cling to thy knee...
...But what have these "bare necessities" turned out to be...
...A company in Dubuque, Iowa, is producing such board from cornstalks...
...and "Beans are grown at the foot of the hill of God...
...Treatment of adhesive A with dilute acids increases materially the yield of furfural...
...The annual production of corn cobs is therefore I9,ooo,ooo tons, which now largely goes to waste...
...Not because we are afraid to--but because we know it would not solve anything...
...Still, we saw ourselves being crowded out of the picture we had framed for ourselves, the pleasant picture of comfortable indigence and economic security...
...About Io percent of corn cobs by weight is furfural...
...Remote from my care they seem and my brooding love...
...In city or village, it mattered not which, he thrust himself upon the company at large and as many of the folk individually as time and circumstance permitted...
...Folk's joking and teasing were wine to the soul of Beenoo, not vinegar as to the souls of some...
...Yet never was there one in the likeness of men who had so devouring a passion "to be seen of men" as poor Beenoo...
...Solemn night's stillness, solemn the starry wreathing Wherewith the arching heavens are glistening fair...
...And he would say to the weeping mother : "Nay, sister, grieve not...
...A good quality of paper is now being made from cornstalks...
...In fact a paper factory is already in operation for the production of paper from sugar cane bagasse in Cuba...
...To what far strands or magic isles are you faring, 0 little sleepers of mine, o'er what dim seas...
...Not possessing them--well, but why not possess them, since they are so easy to be had...
...They had a lot of money, while we did not have quite enough...
...It is claimed that 2,ooo square feet of wall board of high quality are produced from a ton of cornstalks...
...He snatched up a split cobble...
...They are the words, chicken and pilaf...
...It also is used in the manufacture of artificial silk...
...Wood sugar or xylose is another by-product which has value as a substitute for ordinary cane sugar 446 THE COMMONWEAL September4, I929 in certain functional diseases...
...Almost he forgot that he was not like other men...
...444 THE COMMONWEAL September 4, I929 splendid trees and a house that badly needed fixing...
...The straw oil is very similar to coal tar and may serve as a valuable source of many new chemical products...
...As industrial chemistry is applied to the utilization of the wastes of the farm, the farming business will become increasingly prosperous...
...but to be passed unnoted was the brimstone with raw egg they stir into grape molasses and push down the throat of a colicky horse...
...Not at all...
...The tradespeople were no longer interested in handling the comparatively cheap food and clothing that we had to have...
...For Beenoo is gone, those who sat with him at feast and fast are gone, and the pleasant places where they sat are plowed by war and watered by tears...
...Saint Francis himself would have a hard time keeping his vow of poverty in Oakum today...
...A manufacturing concern in St...
...impossible to deny the claims of the highly competitive society in which we live...
...Doubtless there would have been a split head if the half-stone had not whirred between the busy right ear of Maryam Khanum and the busy left ear of Shushan Khanum...
...Yet a ton of dried wheat straw on being distilled in the absence of air gives from Io,ooo to 12,500 cubic feet of purified combustible gas...
...The pulp from the stalks is treated with water which is used over and over again...
...Possessing these things, one can be said to live and take a humble place in the community...
...Most of our paper now in use is made from wood pulp but paper has been made from many farm wastes...
...But since that time the industrial use of cottonseed has increased to a marvelous degree...
...For every bushel of wheat produced on the farm there are also produced eighty pounds of straw: the wheat has a market value while the straw is a waste product...
...The methods by which cork is produced are also primitive and uneconomical...
...And though it would be a blessed relief for most of us to fling our possessions into a convenient pond, we simply cannot do it...
...Furfural has many uses in industry...
...Most of our rubber of commerce is obtained from the Hevea trees grown under cultivation, but some is obtained from the guayule shrub which grows wild in Mexico...
...For with the loftiest intentions in the world, it is impossible for Americans of active habit to avoid the property-holding implications of our national life...
...During the past year we have found ourselves working harder than ever to provide the bare necessities of life...
...As life runs in Oakum today, good cars, sports clothing and equipment, radios, pictures...
...A writer in a popular magazine, according to the twelfth United States census, said: "Cottonseed was a garbage in I86o, a fertilizer in I87o, a cattle feed in I88o, and a table food in I89o...
...Farming is an industry which produces food for human consumption and raw material for manufacture...
...God made her for bearing children to praise Him...
...Blessed are the poor, indeed I But try and stay poor, and you will find that every deck you call for is stacked against you, and that it is easier for a camel to enter a very small needle's eye than for a poor man to stay poor in America today...
...that none equaled him in love of savory viands, or could tuck away so large a portion of them...
...Sugar cane bagasse and corn stover are interesting possibilities for such use...
...in this country it is difficult not to acquire it...
...It would have been foolish to have entered into competition with them on a property-holding basis, and we were sensible enough not to attempt it...
...The developments of the past few years indicate a closer relationship between farming and industry...
...In desperation we sweep and garnish our hearts, driving out the seven devils of taxable worries...
...What are the words of thy mouth this day...
...This shrub does well under cultivation on richer lands, and 1,8OO acres of land in California are now being devoted to its production...
...Naught do I hear but the sound of their gentle breathing And my gaze is lost in a tangle of innocent hair...
...They had lost a daughter and gained naught...
...Joseph, Missouri, is producing this board on a twenty-four-hour production basis and is turning out x25,ooo square feet of board every working day...
...Farewell to irresponsible flute-playing and costume-mongering...
...Three or four of our neighbors were in exactly the same circumstances, and together we set our faces (and earning powers) to the grim task of retinning roofs, painting, plastering and generally improving our property...
...The yield of cornstalks per acre would be about two tons, so the amount received by the farmers for this waste product is an important item in reducing the cost of producing corn...
...The farmer received $I.5o per ton as his share of the compensation, the company assuming all cost of collecting, baling and hauling the cornstalks...
...Were they not warm enough, were they not high enough already, in that they had acquired a bride who should bear sons to their house...
...But who is able to forget the wedding feast when little Penna, daughter of Yuash of Nadirabad, became bride of Gewergis, son of Yonan of Shirwan...
...the farmers found that they could double their prices on butter, eggs and milk...
...Softly I leave them, alone in the dark night sleeping, Profound in their trust, lying so meek and mild, Softly I leave them content, in the perfect keeping Of a love more mighty than mine, I too a child...
...Iowa alone produces Io,ooo,ooo tons of cornstalks, sufficient to produce 20,000,000,000 square feet of wallboard per year...
...The straw board has structural strength as well as insulating value and is meeting with a ready market in the industrial world...
...books, alcohol and frequent trips to Europe are the irreducible minimum of existence...
...just as prosperity was established in industry by the utilization and elimination of waste in that line...
...We were getting along quite decently, however, when suddenly our problem became even more complicated...
...And in the long fast, when folk were sighing in their hearts for goodly mutton stew while feeding upon beans, yet durst not speak a word, lest they offend God's holiness or the ears of tender children, he would wag his poor bemused head with, " 'Tis plain God loves feasts more than fasts...
...ten to twenty gallons of valuable straw oil and 4oo pounds of pitch...
...A long farewell to Eskimo-jigging and grape-hunting...
...Straw was at one time used as raw material...
...Insulating board is also manufactured from other farm waste products...
...but they soon repossess us, and our last state is infinitely worse than our first...
...It furnishes the farmer with a new source of revenue, and may also completely revolutionize the methods of producing, harvesting and utilizing corn...
...Cottonseed is used for the production of oil and cottonseed cake...
...BEENOO THE FOOL By MARY FLEMING LABAREE HE fatuous open-mouthed grin showed what he was: God's fool...
...A low yield of ten tons of sugar cane thus brings to the farm an additional $2.50 per acre to help reduce the cost of producing sugar cane, while a high yield of forty tons of cane per acre would mean $IO additional for what was formerly waste material...
...The community in which we lived, being fairly accessible to New York city, and a region of natural scenic beauty, began to experience that strange upheaval known as a boom...
...The amount of Hevea rubber being imported into the United States is constantly increasing, as indicated by the following data: I924 3,038,000 pounds I925 8,469,ooo " x9z6 9,643,ooo " I9~ 7 II,I74,ooo " It comes entirely from Mexico, where a subsidiary of the International Rubber Company owns about 1,8oo,ooo acres of land on which the wild shrub grows...
...In the pressing of the oil from the cottonseed a difficulty was encountered in the fact that the fuzz or lint on the cottonseed absorbed a large quantity of the oil...
...For each bushel of shelled corn there are fourteen pounds of corn cobs produced...
...His belly was empty, and he was waiting with dwindling patience for the men to finish their feasting in the big upper room, that the women and children might gather in the cook room to deplete the innumerable bowls and platters, when he and God's poor were free to polish them...
...The possibilities of the situation are well illustrated in the case of cotton...
...Property values shot up overnight, and with them our taxes, insurance, overhead and upkeep went soaring...
...This material is now much sought after in the industrial world...
...The laughter was so pleasant a thing he almost forgot that his girdle was more closely drawn than its custom was and called for yet another drawing-in...
...and each was so intent on the words of the other they did not hear the "Peace upon you l" of Beenoo, neither did they see him waiting expectantly before the shop of Mahmud, the grocer...
...I can hear her jolly father-in-law call, "Come Beenoo, come hither, man...
...FARM RELIEF BY AID OF CHEMISTRY By ROBERT STEWART T MAY be that the secret of the successful handling of our surplus farm commodities lies in their use in other ways than as food products...
...Food and shelter...
...Ai, ai...
...Ai, the hurt of it...
...Laughter sprang up to greet the words, and Beenoo was ready for his hour of banter, happy that the eyes of men were upon him, that merriment rang about him, that for the time being, he was part and parcel of the common fabric of life...
...In the manufacture of paper from cornstalks a certain amount of valuable by-products are obtained...
...I pause beside each bed, bend o'er the little sleepers With awed, quiescent heart and reverent will, Raising a prayer that their great angelic keepers Will watch and guard them, lying so meek and still...
...It is impossible for us to strip down to essentials, and stay stripped...
...Not only this is the voyage we'll not be sharing, And you witI know more perilous waters than these...
...The seed was delinted by machinery and the linters found a limited use as mattress stuffing and as cotton batting that was worth only $.oi a pound...
...These indications point to the development of a new industry which will utilize a definite portion of our agricultural land for industrial purposes, thus reducing the surplus production of our common farm crops...
...When corn cobs are submitted to distillation, various important chemical products are obtained...
...Any plant with a heavy growth of fibrous material is a potential source of paper manufacture...
...And Beenoo who was hovering near: "Two words alone taste sweet upon my lips, today, O Master of the Feast...
...This waste product of the farm, which often occasioned restrictive legislation regarding its disposal, is now the raw material from which over $Soo,ooo,ooo worth of useful products is made, two-fifths of which is returned to the cotton producer to help increase his profits...
...The yield of sugar cane varies from twentyfive to forty-three tons per acre...
...The four-year average production of corn in the United States is 2,676,22o,ooo bushels...
...mutton on the top...
...How long ago it all seems...
...One hundred tons of corn cobs would produce, on distillation, forty-five tons of adhesive A and thirty tons of adhesive B, thirty-five tons of cellulose, three tons of acetate of lime and one and one-half tons of furfural...
...For us, Oakum was ruined...
...Within a year we should have more property than we threw away, and mountains of new responsibilities to take the places of the old ant hills...
...Into our little village of Oakum, our rustic hamlet nestling in an obscure pinfold of the Catskills, poured a swelling flood of monied strangers, vacationists and commercial exploiters of the arts...
...Though we whittle and prune diligently in our efforts to cut down excessive chattel foliage we find ourselves overrun with briery possessions and parasitic belongings...
...The war caused a demand for this material for the manufacture of explosives and at its close linters were September 4, I929 THE COMMONWEAL 445 worth $.I 4 a pound...
...It is used for producing the beautiful lacquer finish of automobiles, for upholstery, leather substitutes, toilet articles of all kinds such as brushes, combs, mirror backs, toothbrushes, kodak and movie films, sausage casings, rayon and fine paper...
...Their fine clothes and silvered automobiles made our rickety houses and shabby clothing seem pretty tatterdemalion...
...In most countries it is difficult to acquire property...
Vol. 10 • September 1929 • No. 18
