Show once poor wastelands now yield profitable products use farm crops in plas plastics opens industry to agriculture urge production of many new plants the proportion of usable wealth to be derived from an acres production is becoming larger has meant maximum utilization of maximum production it has insisted that ways be foundton found to use the high as well as the low values of the harvest the stalk as well as the grain the shell as well as the kernel the weed as well as the crop with those words wheeler mcmillen president of the national farm chemurgic council describes the revolutionary effect promises to have on agriculture with a national purchasing power to support the new products 0 of f US this industry farmers will not only be obtaining additional income from standard crops but they will derive revenue from the use of the vast su marginal lands now lying waste milkweeds milk weeds and cat tails all of thise these and many more were once considered the useless and even pestiferous embroidery of the lonely plains but today they have been proven to have real commercial value although american experiments with the dandelion have not been as extensive as those in russia efforts are being made here to convert the latex of this colorful little plant into rubber in this field we were concerned with the guayule shrub and although the project later was abandoned because of the steady flow of natural rubber from the indies it has now been revived in the sandy southwest but if we have lagged in our development of the dandelion not so with the milkweed or the coattails cattails catt cat alls tails milkweed yields fiber according to dr boris berkman milkweed produces two fibers A pioneer in milkweed development dr berkman says one fiber Is tubular with an air chamber it is 58 per cent alpha cellulose 20 per cent lignin and is covered with a vegetable wax of a high melting point this fiber is found in the pod known as milkweed floss the fiber aber Is buoyant has a high 9 insulation value and promises to be v valuable I 1 for soundproofing material D dr berkman predicts its use in life preservers life jackets aviator suits combining insulation value tor for high atmosphere with buoyancy broyan C y in case of a landing in water sleeping bags mattresses 4 pillows and surgical dressings the other fiber of the milkweed Is found in the outer layer of the stalk in different species of the plant it represents between 10 and 20 per cent in weight of the entire enair e stalk known as bast this fiber has a great tensile strength and the high alpha cellulose content of 92 per cent dr berkman sa says ys that studies show that bast fiber ranks second to manila hemp in breaking and tensile strength running about three fourths of an inch in length the fiber is soft pliable and much finer in texture it has good possibilities bili ties for use as textile seventy two per cent of the milkweed found growing wild in michigan was on no 4 land approximately 85 per cent of milkweed seed germinates in experiments last year milkweed pickers earned from tour four to seven dollars a day and they included women and children the tall somber cattail that stands silently in the marshes today may soon be the base tor for a flouris flourishing industry in experiments conducted under the direction of C F burgess noted chemist this lowly plant was found to have high heat beat insulating sound absorption a and nd wai ter resistant properties according to mr burgess the floss of the cattail can be produced at a cost competitive with cotton about man hours of labar labor are needed a I 1 ij f from corncobs chemicals facture of butadiene tor for synthetic rubber petroleum reAn refineries eries employ it as a solvent walnut shells act as fill ersIn enrin my types of plastics they are used tor the making ol of large cast molds in forming or stamping large aluminum airplane sections appreciable q quantities uan of wain walnut ut shell flour are an fill fillers ers in various rub rubber her products this flour contains cutin a substance of waterproof character r revive t castor ator planting loss of territory and reductions of shipping have cut off importation of many products formbly received from other countries the importance of these products to our economy and the possibility that we may be deprived of them tor for substantial periods has led to a movement tor for the cultivation of these products here at home aw As a result of these movements it has been learned that many ol of these products were raised in this country many years ago but gradually were abandoned as domestic growers found it hard to compete 4 t h v P V MV k 1 t the castor plants beans inset contain valuable oil for medicine and industry Indu stay yield per acre varies according to iscil to collect and process spikes a day these spikes yield 1500 pounds ot of cattail floss location of plants close to the marshes where oe he plants abound would trim operating costs belladonna Is medicinal the belladonna whose reddish bell shaped flowers and shining black berries ornament the fields contains medicinal properties w which aich make cultivation of the plant both useful and profitable dr alex laurie of ohio state university points out that belladonna is one of a number of plants whose tops and roots yield alkaloids that prevent gripping of irritant cathar ties relax muscles and de decrease creasi secretions one of the alkaloids scopolamine mino is among the most satisfactory materials used in childbirth according to dr laurie belladonna thrives in acid soils all ali shade m must u st be eliminated if the quality of the plant is to be retained A 30 inch spacing between rows and 12 inches in the row required plants and produced as high as 1000 pounds of dry material per acre in cu at the ohio agricultural experiment station it was found that high nitrogen and phosphorus are nece necessary to secure higher yields but the alkaloid content was not lot increased proportionately harvesting and drying demand knowledge of plant growth and adequate equipment dr laurie says since usually three crops may be secured per season the plants must not be cut down to the ground it is in the field of plastics that has made such great strides in utilizing the product of the farm in industry from cotton has produced cellulose acetate a molding and extrusion material in the form of sheets rods and tubes and also ethyl cellulose an elc excellent ellent elastic clastic plastic when used with other agents from skim milk casein Is derived buttons synthetic wool felt hats bats and bonded plywood are all products of casein oat hulls nut shells and corncobs corn cobs have a ready usein use in plastics when the war created an ac acute lite shortage of formaldehyde obtained from oat cat hulls bulls and corncobs corn cobs furfural is used in resin and also in the manu with the cheap labor of other countries the case of castor beans Is an example oil from these beans serves a variety of important purposes as a medicine as w we a a all 11 know but also as a hydraulic liquid lubricant tanner and preserver and insecticide in 1860 castor beans were grown commercially in the midwest there was a pressing plant for the beans in kansas but when we began importing castor beans from india and brazil our own industry died out the location of india in the war zone and the shor shortage taie of shipping to brazil has led to a bean shortage that has prompted the movement tor for res resuming castor bean cultivation here under the impetus of the department of agriculture a castor bean seed production program h has a Is heen been designed to build up a stockpile of approximately three million pounds 0 of f pure variety castor beans tor for plantings texas oklahoma kansas missouri illinois kentucky tennessee and indiana are the eight s tates states that will share in the program in recent experiments D dr edw W L burnson Burl lson oi of the agriculture e department of the universo university it of illinois discovered that certain types of castor beans would produce crops when grown in the right soll soil and climate A bean that yielded pounds per acre in one section of the state yielded 1748 pounds in another section it has been pointed out that in this country beans w would have to be planted each year and harvested before frost in brazil the plant is a perennial with blossoms and mature beans growing on the stalk at the same time cascara and digitalis are found in the forests and mountains odthe of the northwest pacific area over Is six ix million pounds of cascara bark year I 1 ly are obtained in washington agton and oregon with a value of Us this crop is gathered from wild growth and cultivated groves digitalis leaves are also picked from native and planted patches in the same states sage coriander and anise thrive in the northwest but the large amount of hand labor needed for the care of these crops has proven a discouraging factor the work of thinning and weeding these crops conflicts with the same type of labor in the sugar beet fields |