The Wilmington morning star., 1940-12-02
WASHINGTON
DAYBOOK
BY JACK STINNETT

WASHINGTON, Dec. 1.-The Department of
Agriculture has gone H. G. Wells. Dipping in
to the laboratory and experimental farm sta
tons for material, it has written its own little
treatise ION the shape of things to come"
Prefacing it with a note of warning that no.
body really can predict exactly what is on the
way, the department proceeds to list and dis
cusS experiments and inventions that point in
the direction of new wonders on the farm and
additional shekels in the farm family's savings
account.
There is, for example, the use of colchicine,
a powerful drug from Asiatic and European
meadow saffron that apparently makes fertile
heretofore sterile plant hybrids and may open
the door to hundreds of new varieties of fruits,
vegetables and field crops.
There's a new acid with a name as long as
from here to Tokyo which, when used in a
spray with only a half-teaspoonful to 100 gal
Ions of water, keeps apples and other fruit
from dropping off the trees.
NEW BREED OF CHICKENS
Out in Oklahoma, DR.. R.. George Jap has
been working for four years to produce a new
breed of chickens (Oklabars), the sex of which
may be determined at birth by feather color
ing, thus permitting the elimination of an
overabundance of males from a shipment of
baby chicks.
The department also is casting a watchful
eye on the work of the Kansas City scientists
who are trying to make palatable food out of
grass, which has been found to have vitamin
content far greater than that of the four stand
ard classes into which fruits and vegetables
are divided.
For instance, the department says, on an
equal weight basis, it already has been de-
termined that grass and leaves have about $50
times as much Vitamin A as a potato and
100 times as much as tomatoes and citrus
fruits Grasses o1cn houo about ~, +;~o-, 80
much Vltamin B1 as any other fruits or vege-
tables.
Here's one to toy with: the day when you'll
go out to the grass farm for a weeks supply
OF fresh food and Johnny can rake the leaves
IN the front yard for a quick snack. >.
HASTEN PLANT GROWTH
Now also, they're mixing ordinary resin in
the soil to hasten plant growth and preserve
food and humus in the soil against attacks by
heterogeneous.
There's a new hull-less variety of oats Ma
kota), developed by South Dakota State col
lege and a new Minnesota popcorn that has 20
per cent greater popping volume than the hot
buttered stuff you've been getting from the
corner stand.
IN a Philadelphia suburb (and maybe in
some other by now you can buy a whole
frozen-packed meal from door-to-door vendors.
AT last report, it cost 80 cents and contained
a pound OF filet of sole, peas, corn and as
paragus, with spinach and string beans as
alternates. A skillet, two or three pans, bread
and butter and dinners ready.
A product of oats is being used to prevent
the flavor changes in foods, including ice
cream, lard, potato chips, peanuts, oils, candy
and coffee.
REDUCES WATER LOSS
A cold wax emulsion for many such vege-
tables as carrots, beets, tomatoes, squash and
cucumbers reduces the water loss in shipment
and gives them an especially appetizing ap-
pearance on the stands. So highly do eastern
buyers prize vegetables thus treated they're
paying 20 to 80 per cent premium for them,
although it costs less than 2 cents a bushel to
wax them on the farm!
Little Miss Muffet couldn't have imagined
what's happening to curds and whey. They're
being made into -%7afers, rubber, candy and a
plastic that stretches and returns slowly to
its original shape don't ask me what that's
used for).
It's beginning to leok as if the farmer can
start singing, there's a great day coming"
and the farm of tomorrow will be a house OF a
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