The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1899-06-28
S5o,ooo,ooo for Co7astalks.
New York Commercial.

| New York Commercial.
Steps are being taken to form a
cornstalk combine With a capital OF
S5O,G00,000. Its promoters say that
if they are successful in carrying out
their ideas, 25O,O00,0C0 tons Of corn
stalk that are burned or left to rot
By The farmers of the United States
will prove to be as valuable as coal,
or about Sc per ton.
W. R. Tate, representing syndi-
cate of ST. Louis, Chicago and
Cleveland capitalists, is now in the
city, preparing the way for meet
ing Ct the promoters Of the combine,
which is to be held at the Waldorf
Astoria on August Is, when the
scheme of financing and the details
of organization will be perfected.
While he was reticent when seen
yesterday, be intimated that the
combine would not have for it's ob-
ject the sitting Of competition, but
nply the development of the corn-
stalk as commercial commodity
and the creation Of markets for its
several products.
Mr.. Tate has been in communica-
tion in the last few days with several
we'll known promoters Of this city,
and from one Of these the purposes
of the new trust, along with some
interesting figures, were secured.
Over 250,00O,000> tons Of cornstalks
are grown in the United States
every year, the acreage averaging
e0,000,C00 and the yield about three
tons to the acre. Of this immense
amount, two-thirds, or about 1G0,-
100000 tons, has heretofore been re-
garded as sheer waste and litter,
less than one-thild of the total
weight of the stalks being servicesble
as fodder for cattle. This waste
matter has been a. serious trouble to
farmers for long time, not be-
cause of an understood loss of reven-
ue by it, but simply because Of the
necessity of getting rid Of it, by
burning or otherwise, in order to
free the soil of an encumbrance.
Science has demonstrated now that
this so-called waste has value all its
own, and reckoned at its present
market price it is now known that
the farmers of the country have been
throwing away or burning up and
otherwise destroying S9OO,0Oo,O0O
a year for two decades at least, or
SiS,O0O,CO0. It is a safe estimate
that twice that enormous sum has
beer allowed to go to waste in corn
stalks in this country alone in the
present century.
A company organized few years
ago by Mark ". Marsder, of Phila
delphia, which has two factories,
one in Rockford, III and another in
Owensboro, Ky, has been success
fully manufacturing six different
products from corns:a!ks. These
are celIuiose, which is used for the
lining of battle ships, serving as an
automatic leak stopper, the value CT
which is we'll known: first class
cardboard, splendid paper, an un-
equalled foundation for dynamite,
patent cattle food and glue.
Ii these products and others that
the cornstalk may in the future be
capable of yielding that the proposed
combine intends to handle. Whether
or not the Marsden Company will
enter the combine is not known, but
according to Mr.. Tate the success Ct
the scheme does not depend upon
the securing Of the Marsden patents,
he intimating that the promoters OF
the trust control their own process.
Mr.. Marsden has contract with
the Government for cellulose at S4CO
per ton, and it is figured that be
can manufacture one ton Of cellalose
from Is tons of stalks, or S4OO,
worth Of celIuiose from $50 wo,th Of
stalks, not counting his by products.
Ground cornstalks, cooked and
sweetened with molasses and pressed
into bricks, is regarded as one Of the
most nutritive cattle foods yet placed
on the market The psper and
cardboard manufactured from corn
stalks are already recognized as ex-
ceptionally superior articles.
1t is the dust Of cellulose that is
used for making powder and dyna-
mite. BY reason Of its powers Of