Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-07-28
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.

The farm millennium is just around
the corner. Whether it be part of
Coolidge prosperity remains to be
seen, but in this sizzling campaign of
the drys and the vets 1t is somewhat
startling to discover that the farm
prosperity is traceable directly to
calm" It is so declared by no less
authority than Dr. II. G. Knight, chief
of the Bureau of Chemistry. Depart
ment of Agriculture. in an address on
the agricultural problem and the role
of chemists In solving it, which he de-
livered last Monday before the American
Chemical Society at Evanston, III.
Il x
1t would not be safe for the reader
In jump to the conclusion that 1t is
only LIQUID corn" to which the chemist
alludes. for, besides liquor, there are
5000 other products that may now be
derived from corn.
DR.. Knight declares that nowhere
else in the world. where white men can
live, is there so much of the suns heat
and potential power stored in yegeta-
ton as it is in the corn belt.
1t is we'll known that the corn crop
is worth more in the market than any
other crop produced by the American
farm. In the five seasons prior TO the
World War 1t averaged $1.577 900 900
annually. From 1915 to 1919 the
average value was $3.014.000, 900 an
nually. and in 1920, the largest corn
crop ever grown was sold for So, 100000
600. but, the war demand having ended,
the crop of 1921 sold for only 81 ,3OS,-
600 900. DR. Knights speech did not
deal with the market price OF the gram
that was sold. but rather with the
waste that was left to cucumber the
farms--the cornstalkS and corncoDS.
His main theme was the wastes OF the
present farms and how they can De
eliminated or made into Valuable
products.
This is not new theme in agrtcul-
ture, but 1t points the way To eventuaI
reorganization Of farming. by the re-
placement of small individual farmers
BY great organizations. exactly as the
country butcher has been superseded oy
the great packing plants, whlcn are
able to utilize every part of the amman
butchered and make economies mpos-
sihle nv the old method. Henry Ford
and his organization uses vast amounts
of rubber and he finds 1t impossible TO
GET the quantity needed from miscel-
laneouS sources, SO within the last TWO
weeks he has sent two ShlploadS or
neoule and tools to South America 10
develop a rubber plantation as large as
New Jersey. all under one management.
What is being done with rubber may
yet be undertaken in this country with
corn. so that wastes of the product may
be avoided,
Chemists have demonstrated by many
laboratory experiments that paper can
be made of eornStalks, but how ShaH
corn paper be produced profitably unless
q sufficient amount Of the raw ma
teriaI can be concentrated at the factory
to keep the machines running all year?
CornStalks are extremely bulky, and
supply to run factory continuously
through the year represents a vast area
OF production, hence a tremendous cost
OF transportation. The experimental
chemist has nothing to do With econ
omies OF actual business. but those are
the problems which confront Dr.
knights optimism.
wall board may be made of cornStalk
and also of straw-~in the laboratory
but that same problem OF tranSporta-
ton prevents the manufacture from be-
coming commercial success. There
are hundreds of thousands of uses of
waste farm products demonStrahle in
laboratories. but the practical problem
under present conditions OF such broad
distribution of the raw material Is not
yet overcome.
Yet the problem does not at all differ
from that Of the village blacksmith or
wagonmaker Of the past generation, or
the shoemaker or the home butter
maker or the butcher. All these in
dustries are organized today, and the
individualst simply is forced 10 feeog-
nice that the one~man enterprise Is
gone. Chain stores in cities demon
strate the same thing,
DR.. knight argues from these trends
In other lines that similar organization
must come In farm production before
the costly wastes can be saved, The
solution Is not one for the chemist
alone, but for the business organizer,
The reverse of corporation OF many
farmers, he said. Is illustrated by many
industries which have entered the farm
field, not as agricultural enterprises, but
To make sure of an adequate supply OF
raw material on dependable basis for
their own needs induStrially Fer
example a chocolate manufacturer re-
uuires large quantity OF milk and
sugar. SO he operates diaries and cane
Sugar refinerisS, instead
az buying cane from unorganiaed plan
tations. operate their own cane planta-
tiuns a wood pulp corporation In
Florida having an excess of hydrogen
as hy-product Is now farming great