The Ely miner., 1943-06-10
No End to Wonders! Dehydration Packs
Tasteful Dinner Into Vest Pocket;
Field Crops Are Source of Plastics
oFueIA

terpart, offers even more interesting
opportunities as a contributor to flu
ture farm prosperity.
Already the products of 40 million
acres of American farm land are 60
ing into our industrial plants. And
this is but the beginning. Already
chemical engineers have come to
think of all America as an indus
trial farm and of farm products as
the raw materials for factories.
Perhaps the classic example of
chemurgy's effort to turn farm
crops into vitally needed industrial
products lies in the field of syn
thetic rubber. It took the world a
century to raise the production of
crude rubber to a billion tons a
year. The United States now ex-
poets to develop a like capacity for
synthetic rubber-much of it is made
from corn and other farm products
within the next year and a half.
The chemurgic scientist busy
among his test tubes performs such
miracles as turning milk into htch-
en- curtains; corn into a tinfoil SUBJ
stitute; sunfiowers into paper; sor-
ghum into insulating board; barley
and sweet potatoes into ethyl alco-
hol.
Furfural made from oat hulls is
now being used in oil refining and
IN the processing of wood resin.
Anti-freeze fluids and fuel alcohol
come from Gull potatoes. Glycerol
from animal fats is being used in
the production of dynamite for
war purposes. Then there is Zein,
a protein product of corn starch
which lends itself to the manufac-
ture of yarn, buttons, wallpaper
coating and quick-drying ink.
Soybean Source of PIastics.
In the field of plastics, gluten, a
residue of corn, is being effectively
used, as is casein, a by-product of
milk. But perhaps the biggest con-
tribution to plastics is being made
by soybeans. Thanks to soybeans,
the automobile of the future may be
grown from the soil. Already, gear
shift handles, steering wheels, win
dow frames, distributors and a con-
siderable variety of other parts are
made of soybeans. The basic mold
ing material for numerous plastics
IS a soybean compound. Thus radio
cabinets and plumbing fixtures in
postwar America may be merely a
mold of soybean cakes.
Yes, farms can be made the
source OF our future prosperity. Sci
entists and industrialists can get
farm materials from which to make
new commodities and promote in
creased factory production from
which prosperity springs.
In this era of definitely new agri-
cultural development, one factor will
loom big in determining success or
failure. That factor is productivity
OF the soil. For the extent to which
our farms can continue to yield
crops for the new dehydration indus
try, for chemurgic utilization into in
dustrial products or to help feed
the world IN the critical postwar Pc
riod, will depend on the fertility of
the soil that produces those crops.
Vincent Sauchelli, agricultural re-
search expert of Baltimore, Nd, in
an address before a Farm Chem
urgic conference once said: Chem
urgy can succeed only on farm land
where plant foods are returned to
the soil IN the form of commercial
fertilizer at rate which at least
balances the amount removed each
year by growing crops and live
stock.
Zone of the significant steps for
ward" he added, sis that which
helps the farmer learn more about
his particular soil and its plant food
needs. State agricultural expert
ment stations are prepared to as
slst farmers not only in soil tests
to determine the proper fertilizer
analyses for various crops, but also
inform them on the placement to
insure best results
The importance of Mr.. SauchellTs
observations is evident when il is
considered that after the war Amer
lea will be faced with the greatest
soil rehabilitation job in its history.
This Is because vast wartime farm
production demands are draining fer
tllty resources on an unprecedented
scale and because fertilizer appIi-
cations at present cannot balance
the depletion rate.
Growing crops to win the war is,
OF course, the farmers No. Job"
said a statement of the Middle West
Soil Improvement Committee. ga
heavy draft on the farmers say
1ngs account of plant food elements
IS a relatively small contribution to
victory, if proper steps are made to
repay the borrowed soil wealth when
the war is over"