302 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



has been done in cooperation with the Forest Service. Facilities have 

 been inslalled also for the microscopic study of paper fibers, which is 

 now under way, 



Semicommercial PAPER TESTS. — In the making of semicommercial 

 tests considerable work has been done during the past year. These 

 tests are made under contract at the Cumberland Mills of S. D. 

 Warren & Co., near Portland, Me. One j^roblem has been met with 

 in connection with most of the raw materials under test, namely, the 

 necessity of removing Avholly or greatly reducing the relative pro- 

 portion of the pith or parenchymatous cells. The long fiber resulting 

 from the separation is suitable for the various grades of book and 

 writing papers, while the pith pulp can probably be used in making 

 paper and pulp specialties. 



Paper has now been made in a wide variety of finishes from corn, 

 broom corn, rice straw, and several other materials, both pure and in 

 combination with other fibers, including soda fiber from poplar and 

 sulphite from spruce, and also cotton-hull fiber. Small quantities, or 

 " engines," as they are commonly called, of paper have been made 

 from about eight varieties of Indian corn and four varieties of broom 

 corn to make possible a comparison of the different varieties, both as to 

 yield and as to paper-making qualities. Cotton-hull fiber, the short- 

 est lint that remains adhering to the hulls, which are a by-product of 

 the cottonseed oil industry, used in combination with corn, broom 

 corn, and rice straw papers, has been found to facilitate greatly the 

 draining of the pulp and also to add to the softness of the paper. 

 The rice straw used in the experiments was furnished by the Arkansas 

 Rice Growers' Association. The tests of broom-corn stalks have been 

 especially complete and quite encouraging. All papers produced in 

 the work are tested in cooperation with the Bureau of Standards of 

 the Department of Commerce and Labor. 



Food extract from cornstalks. — Good progress has been made in 

 the study of the so-called " food extract " obtained by aqueous extrac- 

 tion under pressure from stalks of corn and broom corn and some other 

 crop materials. The favorable results of the chemical analyses of 

 this extract produced on a smqjl scale led, during the past season, to 

 the production of a larger quantity. A vacuum evaporating appara- 

 tus was improvised and set up at the paper mill, and sufficient extract 

 of a molasses-like consistency was made to conduct preliminary feed- 

 ing tests. The results of these tests, which were continued for a 

 month in cooperation with the Bureau of Animal Industry, justify 

 the production of sufficient material, say, 1 to 2 tons, to conduct a 

 decisive feeding test. If the food value of cornstalks in the form of 

 water-soluble solids can be conserved profitably and returned to the 

 farm for feeding, an important point will have been gained. The 

 removal of the raw material will then not represent a serious attack 

 upon our soil resources. It seems possible that this extract may have 

 an important bearing upon the ultimate possibility of cornstalks as 

 paper-making material, 



GENERAL TECHNOLOGIC WORK, 



Although the cotton and paper work have occupied the major por- 

 tion of the time of the Office of Agricultural Technology, several 

 problems of a general nature have received attention. 



