82 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



many 6t our commercial plants are what determines its profits. 

 Stop and tliink what this means. How much profit are we making 

 from our horticultural products. 



Let us analyze farther the packing industry. Few indeed are 

 tlie industries which have developed the utilization of by-products 

 to such a ftate of perfection as has the slaughtering industry. From 

 concrete example I wish to more firmly impress upon your min'I 

 the value of waste products. It goes without comment that the 

 meat is the chief product. It is no exaggeration to say the animal 

 killed is used from the tip of its horns to the hair at the end of its 

 tail. The carcass as it hangs in the butcher shop represents only 

 5 8 per cent of the whole animal on foot. The remaining 42 per cent 

 is waste products utilized by the conversion into by-products. What 

 per cent of our horticultural crop is used and what per cent is waste? 

 Let us look farther; there are as many as ITJj different articles made 

 from these waste products, and we might mention only a few as — 

 fertilizer, glue, gelatine, hair, bristles, oil, bones, glands, or membranes, 

 from which are obtained pepsin, thyroid, pan creatin, soap, glycerine, 

 albumen, etc. To farther differentiate we find the hoofs of animals 

 are utilized according to their color; e. i. white hooTs are exported 

 to Japan to be made into various ornaments and imported back as 

 Japanese art objects. From striped hoofs are made buttons, while 

 black hoofs are used in the production of cyanide of potassium with 

 v/hich we fumigate our green ihousesl. The hide goes to make 

 leather which we wear on our shoes. The hair is bailed up and used 

 for plaster on our houses. The blood is collected and made into 

 blood meal which we feed our cattle, and also which is used as a 

 high grade nitrogenous fertilizer. The excrement and dirt from the 

 floor is scraped up and goes into fertilizer. The bones are all cooked 

 and steamed and the resulting product is steamed bone, a fertilizer 

 valued from reason of its high grade of organic phosphate. The fat 

 ynd meat that accumulate when the bones are steamed is collected, 

 dried and ground and we have tankage, another by-product of com- 

 nierical importance. The horns are now made into ornamental pieces 

 with commercial value, and so it goes and by a closer analysis of the 

 bituation we could still reduce the waste products to produce things 

 of value which a few years ago were all loss. 



We must not assume that a by-product is a constant factor in 

 liorticultuie, for it is easily seen that it can and must change in some 

 crops. In one case it might be a by-product and in another instance 

 it might be the main product. So we cannot say that a given pro- 

 duct is always a by-product especially in horticulture, but that the 

 by-product is determined by the main product and crop in question. 

 In whatever position the by-product finds itself it sho'uld never- 

 the less form a greater source of income, not only from the financial 



