Show no end to 0 wonders dehydration packs tasteful dinner into vest pocket field crops are source of plastics drying removes water and air from produce while retaining nutritional values milk now turned into kitchen curtains cull potatoes into fuel alcohol american agriculture will emerge from the war with a new pattern of crop production that will not only give us everything we eat and wear but provide much of the raw materials used in industry during world war 1 I the emphasis was on the production of cereal crops today although cereals are essentially necessary heavier emphasis is being placed on dairy products meats vegetables eggs and oils if the present trend continues american milk goals in the reconstruction period will be double our present output of billion pounds a year the nations farms farm will swill be permanently producing more meat and eggs more vegetables and more oil off yielding crops such as soybeans two developments are credited with adding impetus to the new farm production trend both have been spurred by scientific research and the necessity of meeting wartime problems one is cle dehydration hydration or the dry preservation of food the other is or the science of transforming farm crops into industrial products dehydration is not new in fact it is as ancient as the sun that has been drying the water out of things for ages but to the old dehydration processes have been added new techniques that have so revolutionized its future possibilities that some economists predict that food dehydration plants may become as common in agricultural areas as canneries and conden series are today an idle dream you say not so idle perhaps when it is considered that there are more than dehydration plants in the united states today compared with only five in 1940 J B wyckoff of the agricultural marketing administration recently estimated that the united states will dehydrate vegetables at the rate of to million pounds in 1943 as COM compared Dared with million pounds in 1942 yet last years totals were seven times the 1940 volume to meet the 1943 44 dehydrated food requirements as presently known he added will require every third egg and one out of every 12 pounds of whole milk produced requirements for dehydrated meat practically nonexistent non existent a year ago will be approximately 60 million pounds in 1943 dehydration saves shipping the remarkable impetus given dehydration grew out of a shortage of shipping space cans and containers to meet lend lease demands and the food requirements of our fighting allies one ship loaded with dehydrated food can carry upward of 10 times as much food as a ship loaded with bulk food improvements in dehydration technique have followed two major trends one has been to compress the food into an incredibly small space the other has been to preserve the foods palatability and nutritional value many foods normally average 90 per cent water dehydration as originally practiced meant removing most of the water now the food is not only dehydrated but de bulked as well by having the air pressed out of it the result is food compressed into blocks or bri quetter qu ettes thus it is possible to have a vest pocket serving of meat carrots cabbage milk and eggs that would provide all the elements of a hearty meal and yet take up no more shipping room than a package of cigarettes typical food volume reductions as a result of dehydration and corn com the scientist teams up with the farmer in ushering in new era of agricultural production are sauer kraut 90 per cent cabbage 80 per cent potatoes 75 per cent onion beets and carrots 65 per cent egg powder 50 per cent hamburger 50 per cent dehydrated soups 50 per cent one pound of potato bricks yields 24 helpings hellings hel pings A five gallon container of dried tomatoes swells to a quarter of a ton when water is added dehydrated foods flavorful As contrasted with their crude predecessors of world war 1 I dehydrated foods are flavorful dunked bunked and cooked in water these foods emerge with almost no sacrifice of flavor and with practically no loss of proteins carbohydrates and minerals they suffer no greater loss of vitamins than when occurs when fresh vegetables stand for a time in a store hence it is no surprise that american soldiers can relish scrambled eggs made from a dehydrated powder or that englishmen eat and like meat loaves and stews that crossed the atlantic as tiny shreds of dried meat thus milk butter citrus juices as well as potatoes peas spinach and a host of other food products are being successfully dehydrated the extent to which dehydration has already caught hold with the civilian population here in america is indicated by the fact that housewives are buying dehydrated soups at the rate of million packages a year if dehydration offers challenging possibilities for future farm markets then its industrial coun a vac 6 ilk 1 4 1 rapa pa 2 1 im 4 V M g 1 V 4 X 9 J 0 corn from the field is manufactured into a substitute for tinfoil a quick drying printing ink ar r a wallpaper coating under the transforming 0 magic of or thanks to the new science of dehydration it is compressed to only a traction fraction of its weight and shipped overseas to feed our gur armed forces ter part offers even more interesting opportunities as a contributor to future farm prosperity already the products of 40 million acres acres of american farm land are going into our industrial plants and this is but the beginning already chemical engineers have come to think of all america as an industrial farm and of farm prod products u acts as the raw materials for factories perhaps the classic example of effort to turn farm crops into vitally needed industrial products lies in the field of synthetic rubber it took the world a century to raise the production of crude rubber to a billion tons a year the united states now expects 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 kitchen curtains corn into a tinfoil substitute sti tute sunflowers sun flowers into paper sorghum into insulating board barley and sweet potatoes into ethyl alcohol furfural made from oat hulls is now being used in oil refining and in the processing of wood resin antifreeze anti freeze fluids and fuel alcohol come from cull 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 manufacture of yarn buttons wallpaper wall paper coating and quick drying ink soybean source of plastics in the field of plastics gluten a residue of corn is being effectively used as is casein a product byproduct by of milk but perhaps the biggest contribution trib ution 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 window frames distributors and a considerable sid erable variety of other parts are made of soybeans the basic molding material for numerous plastics is a soybean compound thus radio cabinets and plumbing fixtures in in postwar america may be merely a mold of soybean cakes yes farms can be made the source of our future prosperity scientists and industrialists can get farm materials from which to make new commodities and promote increased factory production from which prosperity springs in this era of definitely new agricultural 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 industry for chemurgic utilization into industrial du products or to help feed the world in the critical postwar period will depend on the fertility of the soil that produces those crops vincent agricultural research expert of baltimore md in an address before a farm chemurgic conference once said can succeed only on farm land where plant foods are returned to the soil in the form of commercial fertilizer at a rate which at least balances the amount removed each year by growing crops and livestock one of the significant steps forward he added is that which helps the farmer learn more about his particular soil and its plant food needs state agricultural experiment stations are prepared to assist farmers not only in soil tests to determine the proper fertilizer fertilizer analyses for various crops but also inform them on the placement to insure best results the importance of mr Sau chellis observations is evident when it is considered that after the war america will be faced with the greatest soil rehabilitation job in its history this is because vast wartime farm production demands are draining fertility resources on an unprecedented scale and because fertilizer applications at present cannot balance the depletion rate growing crops to win the war is of course the farmers no I 1 job said a statement of the middle west soil improvement committee A teaby heavy draft on the farmers savings 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 |