Science Works for and 

 Against Agriculture 



DONT stand around waiting for 

 science and industry to solve the 

 farm surplus problem. It will be a 

 long time before industrial uses absorb 

 the output from the 30 to 40 million 

 acres formerly sold abroad. 



This is substantially the warning 

 voiced by several speakers attending the 

 Farm Cbemurgic Council meeting in De- 

 troit May 12-14. It's all right to whoop 

 it up and stimulate interest in develop- 

 ing new outlets for farm products. Some- 

 thing good may come of it. But it is 

 wrong to spread false notions about the 

 possibilities in this direction during the 

 next few years. 



Science, as Dr. Taylor, director of the 

 Food Research Institute of Stanford 

 University, said, works for and against 

 agriculture. Rayon has cut sharply the 

 demand for cotton in clothing. It ha? 

 nearly ruined the market for silk, an im- 

 portant branch of agn"iculture in some 

 countries. Leather substitutes have hurt 

 the price of cattle and sheep hides. Trac- 

 tors and petroleum products, products of 

 science and invention, have displaced 

 millions of horses and mules and the 

 market for great quantities of hay, oats, 

 bran, say nothing about the services of 

 horse doctors. 



Who knows, science may find some 

 cheaper substitutes for certain of our 

 foods. Dr. Geo. R. Harrison of the Massa- 

 chusetts Institute of Technology said at 

 the Detroit meeting that science will 

 eventually end war between nations by 

 improving on nature's resources and end- 

 ing the conflict over raw materials. 



The old fight over alcohol dilution of 

 gasoline flared up anew with Chemical 

 Foundation officials supporting alcohol- 

 gas and thri American Petroleum Insti- 

 tute — the big oil companies — opposing it. 

 The chief engineer of Graham-Paige 

 Motors, Floyd Kishline. asserted that 

 we've got to find something to supple- 

 ment our petroleum reserves. "Present 

 known reserves in this country approxi- 

 mate 12 billion barrels," he said. "Our 

 present yearly consumption is about one 

 billion barrels. Eventually there must be 

 developed some material to augment the 

 petroleum supply." 



Francis P. Garvan, president of the 

 Chemical Foundation and the Council, is 

 a belligerent fighter for 10 per cent al- 

 cohol gasoline. He declared that reliable 

 estimates indicate a visible reserve of 

 petroleum for only 12 years at the pres- 



Alcohol-Gas Dilution 



Leading subject at 



Farm Chemurgic 



Meeting, Detroit 



ent rate of consumption. He asserted that 

 a subsidiary of Standard Oil of New 

 Jersey in Great Britain, is now advocat- 

 mg a 33 1/3 per cent alcohol blend, called 

 "Cleveland Discol." .•;■.. , ', . 



"If it is good enough for England, 

 why isn't a 10 per cent blend all right 

 for us," said Garvan. 



Fred Eldean, president of the Petro- 

 leum Institute, took issue with the alcohol 

 blend champions. "If the use of alcohol 

 or any other substitute for gasoline can 

 better serve at an equal or lesser cost, 

 by all means it should and will be used," 

 he said. "Whether alcohol will be this 

 source time alone will tell. But let's not 

 try to force it by taxation." He quoted a 

 1935 survey which showed ample re- 

 serves of petroleum for the next 25 years. 

 "Ceaseless research being conducted by 

 the industry will result in an adequate 



substitute being offered when occasion 

 demands," he declared. 



Henry Ford said, "The plastic field is 

 the greatest in the industrial world 

 at this time." He enumerated the 

 many automobile parts formerly made 

 of metal, now being made from 

 farm-derived plastics. "The farm will 

 furnish the automobile body of the fu- 

 ture," said Mr. Ford. 



Dr. W. L. Burlison, of the University 

 if Illinois, read a paper on "Jerusalem 

 Artichokes As a Source of Industrial Al- 

 cohol." Eugene D. Funk of Bloomington 

 .spoke on soybeans. 



President Edward A. O'Neal of the 

 American Farm Bureau Federation 

 warnsd that American farmers can not 

 afford to supply industry with a lot of 

 low priced farm products for industrial 

 uses as was advocated by more than one 

 speaker. L. J. Taber of the National 

 Grange expres.sed similar sentiments. 



More than .300 industrialists, chemists, 

 farm representatives, editors, and others 

 attended the conference. Speeches con- 

 tinued on all manner of subjects through- 

 out the three day session. Robt. A. 

 Cowles, treasurer, represented the Illinois 

 Agricultural Association. 



By .May 23 corn planting was finished 



in many areas and averaged about 85 

 per cent completed for the state as a 

 whole, reports the State Department of 

 .■Vgriculture. 



46- Year Old Cheese Cooperative 



If you think that co-operatives are 

 new, take a look at the pictures above. 

 At the right is the Peck Cheese Com- 

 pany, built 46 years ago, near Dakota, in 

 Stephenson county. The cheese maker, 

 upper left, is Edward Frey, a Swiss, who 

 came November 15, 1926, the fifth cheese 

 maker in 46 years. He lives in part of 

 the factory. The curing cellars are 

 underneath the whole building. There 

 are 12 member patrons. They rent the 

 factory by the year from Chas S. Peck, 

 who lives about a quarter mile down 

 the road. The cheesemaker is paid a per- 



centage of all money taken in. At the 

 end of each month, after expenses are 

 deducted the money is divided on a pat- 

 ronage basis. Between 6,000 and 10,000 

 pounds of cheese, mostly brick, is made 

 each month. All milk is tested by the 

 Dairy Herd Improvement Association 

 representative. Cheese is sold both to 

 processors and for resale. Their brick 

 cheese has taken 1st and 2nd prize at 

 Springfield for nearly ten years. A letter 

 from Henry Wallace, Secretary of Ag- 

 riculture, who got a free sample said. 

 "it's great." 



JUNE. 1936 



If 



