Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1898-01-20
USES FOR CORNSTALKS.
A WORTHLESS PRODUCT TO BE uTIL,
iZED IN MORE THAN SIXTY WAYS.

stalk, they retired baffied and beaten,
and from that time to the present the
stalk has been monarch of the field,
at once the biggest nuisance and most
worthless product of the farm. But
Moses has arisen to deliver the farmer
from his thraldom. From nuisance
in farm economy the stalk has become
valuable product; from worthless
waste it has attained to the dignity of
81 ton rating, and now it is daily ar
irving in great loads from all parts of
Winnebago county, Illinois, and is be-
ing piled in immense stacks on the
grounds of the Marsden Development
company at Rockford.
Already, says the Chicago Record,
there are several thousand tons of the
stalks collected, and by the time the
crop is all in there will be many times
as many on hand. The past year was
not good one for stalk development,
and the average crop does not exceed
1000 pounds an acre, but normally
nearly twice this amount would be
realized. The vast piles of stalks will
be turned into marketable product
beginning of great industry will have
been fairly made in Illinois. If the
claims and hopes of the officials of the
company are realized, the benefits of
the Marsden patents to the world at
large will be stupendous financially,
and a great waste in agricultural econo-
my will be stopped. 1t is stated on
good authority that the crop of corn
stalks in the United States for 1896
reached the immense aggregate of
100, 900, 900 tons, and this of product
unfit for food for man or beast.
The processes of the Marsden COM
pany are many, but there are only two
products that they are commercially
operating with. Mr.. Marsden has
proved that over sixty different
products may be made from stalks,
among the leading minor possibilities
being alcohol of superior quality,
shoe enamel which will not crack,
smokeless powder of a high degree of
efficiency, paper much better than any
now produced from wood pulp, an ef-
fcient material for use in electric in
sulation, n material possessing i'll
marked degree the property of non
conduction of heat. But these thus far
have been commercially overshadowed
by the corn pith cellulose, and, as
by-product, an excellent cattle food.
Although the process of the compa
ny is secret and the agents of the con
cern will neither allow inspection of
the plant nor indicate the methods en-
ployed, the general idea of the opera
ton which converts the stiff tibre-cov-
cred pith into merchandise is quite
simple. The stalk is ground very fine
and the resulting comminuted mixture
OF pith and fibre, the two differing
greatly in specific gravity, is separated
by the use of strong air blast and
the action of gravity, the heavy fibre
first falling, while the pith is carried
on by the blast to another receptacle.
There is no waste product; the heavier
part, the fibre which has composed
the stock and blades, is put into sacks
and goes as stock food, while the pith
is sacked and as corn cellulose goes to
the Eastern market to aid in armoring
battleships.
The stalk yields pith and fibre in
about equal quantities, but on the
scales the tale is different, the pith
not being more than 10 per cent. of
the product The stock food is esti-
mated to be about equal to hay as
stock ration, and serves the same pur.
pose-that of base for feeding heavi-
er rations. 1t has not been put to a
test on the farms, as it is not sold at
all in the open market. The whisky
trust appreciated the advantages of
the food, and has contracted for the
entire output of the present factories,
using it in the cattle-feeding barns.
The plans of the Marsden company,
which has an authorized capital Of
$50, 600, 900, look to an immense en-
largement of the business and the
spreading of their factories through
the corn belt as fast as the demand
for the products grows. Every part
OF the cornstalls, other than the pith,
is used in the food, as also the fibres
which bind the pith itself in its natural
state, but which are separated in the
great grinder.
The discovery of the possibility of
utilizing the cornstalk was made
through the use of cellulose in naval
construction. 1t was found soon after
the adoption of armored craft that they
were more liable to dangerous leaks if
the armor were once penetrated than
wooden vessel would be, being less
buoyant. With the development of
modern heavYordnance of wonderful
penetrative power the question became
serious o1e. 1t was solved by
French designers. The vulnerable
area of the ship is not large, the most
dangerous breaks being but little be-
low the Water. The French plan pro-
vided f6r the construction of an arch
ing false deck from point few feet
belok the water line to the deck, leav-
ingfA space about thirty inches wide
Hetween this deck and the outer shell
Fl armor, the side of the battleship.
This space is densely packed with eel
lulose, slowed by hydraulic pressure.