Fortunes in Agriculture 203 



bean can be used to make a great variety of products ranging 

 from foods and soap to varnishes, textiles, and automobile 

 parts. 



This incomplete list gives you a rough idea of what to ex- 

 pect of the soybean in the future: 



Foods: substitutes for butter, lard, meat, coffee, and as 

 flour, cooking and salad oil, and cereals. Clothing: substitutes 

 for wool, cotton, leather, rubber. Cosmetics: soap, face cream, 

 lipstick. Medicine, synthetic hormones, vitamin concentrates, 

 medicinal oils. Home: paint, varnish, roofing, linoleum, dra- 

 peries. Industry: lubricants, explosives, adhesives, automobile 

 parts, printing ink. 



The Castor Bean a New Treasure 



Chemurgists have promoted the growing of many other 

 crops with industrial uses. They believe, for example, that the 

 castor bean may match the success of soybeans as a cash crop. 

 Aside from its well-known medicinal use, castor oil is used in 

 soap, paints, varnishes, inks, linoleum, artificial leather, dyes, 

 and as a lubricant for automotive, aviation, and industrial en- 

 gines. The fine, strong fiber of the plant may prove valuable 

 for cordage and textiles and the rest of the stalk is convertible 

 into cellulose for making plastics and many other products 

 for the armed forces and civilians. We have imported millions 

 of dollars' worth of castor beans from India and Brazil, and 

 the raising of the beans in the United States has been discour- 

 aged by low prices. But when the chemurgists get through, 

 castor bean fields may rival the cornfields of Iowa. 



Flax Straw for Cigarette Paper 



A lot of cigarette paper goes up in smoke each year in the 

 United States. Three years ago our cigarette manufacturers 



