Evening star., 1942-12-15

NoteDook OF science Progress
In Laboratory. Field
And Study
BY Thomas r. Henry.
Americas corn crop, now being husked,
will exceed 5000 900 900 bushels-more
than 81 900 900 above the previous high
est record.
bushels to the acre-about three bushels
more than ever before.
This bumper crop will be turned into
pork and is expected to supply about
half the meat necessary to feed the
Army and Navy, the civilian population.
and to a large extent Great Britain.
The record piled up mostly by corn
belt farmers has just been announced
by the Department of Agriculture.
The increase. the Department Of Agri-
culture statisticians say, Is due to three
primary reasons - exceptionally favor
able corn weather. increased use OF
fertilizer, and greatly increased use Of
hybrid corn seed of which Vice President
Henry A. Wallace has been the chief
protagonist in the past. Even as Vice
President, he has continued his expert
ments In a cornfield near Washington.
Besides conversion to pork, corn also
provides starch for use in making explo-
sives and alcohol for synthetic rubber.
etc. The United States is by far the
greatest n-producing country in the
world.
The hybrid corn, planted on approxi-
mately 100000 acres this year, has
been developed, explains DR.. Merle T.
jenkins, Government corn specialist, by
inbreeding the corn varieties that were
IN use 40 years ago. BY crossing selected
inbred lines and again crossing these
single crosses, the scientists discovered
the way to produce seed which now has
increased yields by more than 20 per
cent with the same soil and weather
conditions.
Following the pattern thus set, DR..
Jenkins explains, corn breeders now
make as many as six preliminary plant
ings solely for seed in order to produce
a final crop Of hybrid seed for distribu-
ton to farmers These seed crops include
the two pairs Of inbred parent strains
and the two paintings of these single
crossings from which the seed is har-
vested.
Ten years ago, Mr.. Jenkins says the
seed was planted on less than 10000
fa
total corn crop. 1t now accounts for u
percent of the entire corn crop.
-
Shipping space needed for transport
Of dehydrated foods-dried milk, meat,
fruits and vegetables-has been cut in
half, in many instances, by a new tech
nique Of COMPRISING into blocks devel-
oped by the cooperative researches Of
scientists in both the United States and
Great Britain.
Some of the accomplishments to date
have just been reported to the American
Medical Association by its London cor
respondent
Milk is an outstanding example A
quart OF liquid milk has a volume of SO
cubic inches and weighs Al ounces.
When it is condensed by taking out most
OF the water so that it can be shipped
without refrigeration 1t has a volume of
u cubic inches and weighs about Is
ounces. Reduced to a powder, the vol
ume sinks to Is cubic inches and the
weight to q little more than ounces
With the powder reduced to block the
weight remains the same but the volume
is reduced to a little less than cubic
inches.
One Of the most recent accomplish
ments is method Of shipping and stor-
ing butter without refrigeration.
Butter consists OF 825 percent fat, 16
percent water, one percent salt and
about five percent of other solids. Being
perishable, 1t has been necessary to
freeze it for transportation and storage.
But" says the American Medical As
sociation correspondent, "by removing
the water and non-fatty solids pure,
dry butterfat is obtained which is rela-
lively non-perishable, is not spoiled by
microbes, and will keep for months
without refrigeration. Most of the value
of butter lies in It's heat-producing prop
erty. The vitamins A and D are in the
fat.
80 in New Zealand and Australia
butterfat is prepared by removing tho
water and fat by centrifuging. In Eng
land the butter can be reconstructed by
churning in water, separated milk pow
der and salt Summer butter, which
has higher nutritive value than win
ter, can thus be stored for winter use.
Meat, fish, onions and other foods
can be reduced to hard blocks which,
when reconstructed by adding water and
cooking. are indistinguishable from fresh
food. These products have been found
very useful for transport to the fighting
forces. Trials have shown that the men
get more vitamin C from prepared than
from fresh cabbage, and the vegetables
can be used in the dark winter months
when fresh vegetables are scarce.
Great care has been taken to insure
that the full nutritive value of dried
foods is retained. In general, 30 also is