| OCR Text |
Show Useful Products From Farm Wastes -Ames, Iowa. Motor fuel from oat hulls and window frames from corn-stalks are only two examples of usable products that the United States Department of Agriculture chemists have mad'- from agricultural agricul-tural wastes here. Two years ago the federal department depart-ment established a field station at Iowa State college to conduct research re-search experiments with waste agricultural ag-ricultural products, i During this lime more than twenty materials have been Investigated. Inves-tigated. Federal chemists - found that nlcohol'could be' manufactured-from manufactured-from corn and beets, a substitute for cork from sugar cane, straw, licorice root and other wastes, engine en-gine fuel from oat hulls, a wood substitute from cornstalks and a water supply purifier from pecan shells. Nearly all. of the wastes studied have gone through a destructive distillation process for the successful success-ful recovery from them of acetic acid, tar and carbon, each a prod uct widely used industrially. As a result D. O. U. Sweeney head of the Iowa State collegt-chemical collegt-chemical engineering department and consultant to the United Stati-s Held station, has envisioned a wide Held for use of agricultural products prod-ucts for nonfood purposes. He explained that with the popu lation of the nation Increasingly' concentrated In large metropolitan areas the expense of their support increased In proportion He would sprend the manufacturing manufactur-ing -area throughout t he country rather than allowing it to con! nil ize In single areas as In the New England states. In this way surplus sur-plus farm labor could be used In factories during rush seasons. Sim ilar factory labor would be available avail-able for farm use when needed. |
