Evening star., 1939-10-22


tories are being rushed to completion in
the Department of Agriculture's first ma
tionally co-ordinated search for new
outlets for surplus farm products.
The first of these regional units,
scientific outpost to protect the farmer
against science, was dedicated by Secre-
tary of Agriculture Wallace at Peoria,
ILL.,. Wednesday.
Chemurgy, new Aladdin's lamp of
science, which can change once useless
waste into amazing new contributions to
modern living, often destroys old mar
kets as 1t creates new ones.
Rayon, as Secretary Wallace pointed
out, has cut into cotton's markets and
the new synthetic fiber, nylon, which
does not have a cellulose base, is likely
to cut even deeper.
Many millions have been spent by
private industry in research to develop
products. many of which compete with
the products of the farm" he said. Now
the Government, by expanding its re-
search work, proposes to even the scales
and give the same type of help to the
farmer. 1t is high time that technology
should work for the farmer and not
against him.
Cottonseed Once Wasted.
The idea Of greater industrial use of
farm products is not new one. Seeds
Of cotton were once thrown away. Now
they are our biggest source of vegetable
oil. Cottonseed oil goes into soaps,
candles, lamp oil and cooking.
Cotton linters, once also wasted, are
now used in the manufacture of rayon
and in the coated fabrics that go into
handbags, wall coverings and automo-
bile upholstery.
More than hundred commercial uses
have been developed for corn, ranging
from glycerine for explosives to carbon
dioxide dry" ice.
Wheat straw is being made into cor
rugated paper boxes: the wallboard in
dustry is based on chemical conversion
of farm by-products not long ago con-
sidered almost worthless.
Soy beans, introduced from China more
than a century ago, were fed mainly to
hogs. Today soy beans are used In
paints, varnishes, soap, linoleum, oil
cloth, printing inks and even automobiles.
Gear-shift knobs, engine distributor COW
ers, ornamental door handles and other
parts are made of soy bean meal.
Open Vast Field.
These and dozens of similar uses for
farm products show the way for the fu-
ture and they are only a beginning.
Hundreds of other discoveries have been
made by the Department of Agriculture,
State colleges, experiment stations and
the universities.
But to make discovery is not enough.
For farm products must enter COM
petitive markets not only as the finished
product, but as the raw material.
Brilliant work in finding hundreds of
amazing uses for peanuts, for example,
has been of little real help to the peanut
grower. The peanut has not been able to
compete with the materials 1t must dis
place if 1t is to win a market.
Economic research must march hand
In hand with chronological advances If
new markets are to be opened up for the
Nations huge farm surpluses.
Establishment of four regional re-
search laboratories, one in each major
farm-producing area, was provided by
the Seventy-fifth Congress in a law
which became operative July /, 1898.
The work has been under way ever since
and the four research units, each costing
81 10000 are to be completed early next
summer.
The laboratories, at Peoria, New Or
leans, Wyndmoor, Pa, near Philadelphia,
and Albany, Calf. ner San Francisco,
have been assigned specific research jobs.
Each will eventually have a stan Of
about 200 scientists and technicians.
Crops to be studied were selected
chiefly on the basis of size of the sur
pluses, number OF farm hands dependent
on them and the number Of acres used
to produce them.
Corn. wheat and agricultural by-prod-