The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-10-26
USES FOR CORN STALKS.
SCIENCE ADDS MILLIONS TO THE
WEALTH or FARMERS,
Discoveries That Make tho Stalk ms
Valuable as the Grain-ft is Used 10
Protect Warships, TO Make Fowaef
and to Manufnc ture Paper.

frOtect w arshtps, 10 m"Ao h"""S.
and to Manufacture Paper.
Five years ago the farmer consider
ed the value of his corn crop practical
ly concluded with the husking of the
corn. What was left was worth per-
haps sixty cents an acre as fodder;
rather under that figure than over II
as a rule. Science, ever busily seeking
uses for by-products, sought to make
sugar and alcohol from the stalk of
the corn, but unavailingly. Now. how
ever, experiments along different lines
have established the value of the by
products of the corn crop as probably
second to no agricultural product of
similar nature grown in this country
and has almost if not quite doubled the
receipts of the corn growers, as the
stalk is made practically as valuable
as the grain There is now a home
market where the farmer can get from
SO to S. a ton for cornstalks; that is
from Sc to $12 an acre for what has
hitherto brought him in sixty cents at
best. The American Agriculturalist,
which treats of this new industry in
lGuulHS dIllClG, IcCldlN5 II w pN oiiS
of the most important departures in in
dustrial history. 1t gives the following
list of what is made from cornstalk.
/. Cellulose for packing cofferdams
on battleships, this preventing them
from sinking when pierced by balls or
shells.
2. Pyroxylin varnish, liquid form
Of cellulose, the uses of which are prac-
tically unlimited.
g. Celluose used for nitrating pur-
poses for making emokeless powder
and other high explosives, for both
small and great arms, as well as pur-
poses for which dynamite or all other
explosives are required in various
forms and degrees of strength.
4. Gelluloee for packing, it being the
most perfect non-conductor known |
against heat or electricity, jars or
blows
5. Paper pulp and various forms of |
paper made therefrom both alone and
mixed with other grades of paper
stock.
g. Stock food made from fine ground
outer shells or shives of cornstalks,
and also from the nodes or joints. The
leaves and tassels also furnish a
shredded or baled fodder.
7. Mixed feeds for stock, containing
fine ground shells or shives as base,
and in addition thereto various nitro
genous meals and concentrated food
or blood, molasses, distil-
lery and glucose refuse, sugar beet
pulp, apple pomace and other by-pro-
ducts.
s. Poultry foods of two types, name
ly-type 1, containing dominant nj
trogenous afctor for laying hens, and
No. 2, containing a dominant carbohy-
drate factor for fattening purposes.
The stalk of the maize plant, or
American corn, is made up as follows,
IN basis of 100 pounds of air-dried
stalks stripped of leaves and tassels;
IS pounds of nodes of joints, 20 pounds
If pith, coarse and fine, and 81 pounds
If shells or shives. The nodes contain,
IN an average, 33 per cent of pure
the pith SO per cent. and the
jhives 40 per cent. This corn pith Gel
ulose is of so great value in naval
warfare that Lewis Nixon, the naval
has declared it to be of as
much importance as the development
# Harveylzed armor and smokeless
powder. Cofferdams along the side of
vessel, when tightly packed with
maize pith to thickness of three feet
will not leak when perforated with
hells or solid shot. When the Golfer
am containing this material is per-
Grated by a shot, the elasticity of the :
lightly packed pith completely closes
he hole made by the projectile, so
hat the water cannot pass through.
Naturally some water must enter at
he point of perforation, but owing to
he great capacity of the pit TO alb
orb water, 1t being able to hold more v
han twenty times It's own weight Il
,hen not pressed the water than first '
nters is at once absorbed This causes q
ne pith which is moistened to swell :
nd thus to close more completely, the l.
perture made by the projectile. !
The Columbia, New York and Olym-
la are thus protected and many of Y
le new warships now under construc- +
on in this county, Russia, England o
nd France are using the new mate 81
al instead of cocoanut fibre which II
as foremrly employed. In the manu- l.
Lcture of high explosives the corn | OF
TIL forms an excellent basis because II
it's admirable keeping qualities, and y
gh class smokeless powders and dy a
antics are are now made from this d
'oduct, which Is aid to be superior to bl
'tton in that it is more easily nitrated b,
Id cleaned. w
In the arts of peace the greatest val CO
of the corn pith at present is found al
the liquid ofrm of the celluloee tt
Town as pyroxylin varnish, which is 70
ilized in hundreds of ways. Nearly W
erything that is made from wood to
lip can, it is said, be made from this lie
aterial. Experiments are now under vi
ay looking to the manufacture Of pa SO
r from cornstalk pulp. For one a1
ing, it is predicted that a substance he
II be produced from the woody COW M
ing of the stalks which will produce WI
good quality of paper at such TO
ice that it will be available for news tel
per use. In the end it may be that WI
e cornstalk will save the forests of hu
Is country which are being cut down Tt
the consumption of the wood pulp mi
lis. The uses of the cornstalk for VIC
cking and food are varied but too we
,hnical for discussion in q newspa- re-
:. AS to the possibilities opened up VIC
this new market, the Agricultural IN
says sci
THE possibilities thus ouened IN nv
!