Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1899-10-19
55ise utlll1ailoaI oi cofastalks.

Il 1
increasing tendency to convert into
salable commodities materials for-
! rnetly regarded as waste. A few
years ago the cotton seed crop Of
the Southern States had little or no
value; to-day the seed figures as no
inconsiderable item in the profits of
cotton raising, No part, however
minute, of the animal slaughtered at
abattoire is now waste ; hide, hoofs,
horns, hair, blood, and even intes-
tines, are all converted into articles
of commercial value. In tact to such
an extent is this conversion of So
called waste into commercial COM
modities carried that in some indus
tries, it is asserted, the value of tho
by-pyoducts is often sufficient to pay
the total expense of factory, and
consequently the manufacture of the
articles for which the plant WAS
primarily intended may be regarded
as without cost.
The economic advantage OF this
tendency can scarcely be overesti-
mated. 1t benefits first the producer
of the raw material by increasing
the utility, and hence the market
value Of his product. The consumer,
on the other hand, shares in the ad-
vantage, because an increase in the
number of quantity of articles de-
rived from the raw material in the
process of manufacture naturally
tends to cheaper the price Of the
manufactured article. Moreover,
much of the comfort and many of
The conveniences of modern life are
due solely to products derived
from material that only a few years
ago was regarded as waste.
In the agricultural industry of the
United States by far the largest item
of waste, at least so far as bulk or
quantity is concerned, is connected
with the raising of corn ; and of late
years science has been dcvoting at
tcntion, with no small measure of
success, to the problem of governing
this waste, as represented by the
stalks, irto useful and valuable COM
moditics. The result up to the
present timo is that six articles
manufactured from cornstalks seem
to have taken permanent place in
the worlds commerce. These are
cellulose and cclluloso dust, cattle
food, first-class cardboard, an cx-
cellent quality ofpapcr, and glue.
Celiulose is produced from the
p; tn of the stalk and is used as q
lining for battleships. Its value in
stopping leaks automatically has been
we'll established. Ccllulose is worth
$400 per ton, and it is estimated
that one ton can be manufactured
from fifteen tons of stalks. The dust
of ccllulose is proposed for use in
making powder and dynamite on ac-
count of its power of absorbing and
retaining nitroglycerine.
The cattle food is manufactured
from the residue of the stalk after
the pith has been removed, and may
include the husks and blades, though
generally this is not the case. In the
process of removing the pith, the
stalks arc cut into small pieces and
these arc ground into coarse incal,
in general appearance resembling
coarse bran. Experiments at the
Maryland Agricultural Experiment
Station in 1897 showed that 100
pounds of this new corn product
contains seven pounds more Of diges-
tible matter than 100 pounds of
timothy hay does, and that the new
corn product contained nearly five
times as much protein rs timothy
hay. This new cattle feed can be
uniformly mixed with ground grains !;
it is superior to the grain in eeping
qualities and can be cooked, COM
pounded with other food material,
and compressed. Its form adapts it
to feeding in many places where it is
inconvenient or even impossible to
get corn or hay, and it therefore
promises to become an excellent
condensed ration for army uses.
1t is obvious that the extensive
utilization Of the constalks as COM
mercial commodity, the consequent
establishment of manufactures ade-
quate to handle the crop and the
creation of market for it's several
products would be Of almost inesti-
mablc benefit to American agricul-
turc. The average area planted to
corn in the United States is about
80,O00,000 acres and it is estimated
that the yield of corn stalk will
average about two tons per acre, de-