Fortunes in Agriculture 207 



sition of the oat hulls resulting from the milling of rolled 

 oats. It is manufactured rather simply by the reaction of 

 dilute sulfuric acid with the oat hulls and is a mobile pale- 

 colored liquid with a pungent odor. ... It was first used in 

 synthetic resin manufacture to react with phenol, as does 

 formaldehyde in forming the phenol-formaldehyde, or bake- 

 lite, type of resin. Phenol-furfural resins, which were developed 

 before furfural became commercially available, are distinc- 

 tive in some respects, including free flowing during molding; 

 their uses include bonding of abrasive wheels and they are 

 said to be used in cementing most U. S. electric light bulbs 

 to their brass bases. 



"The largest use of furfural, however, has been as a solvent; 

 in 1927 it was found useful for refining wood rosin, another 

 chemurgic development, to produce a lighter-colored, more 

 salable product. Since 1933 a number of plants using furfural 

 in the solvent refining of lubricating oil and diesel fuel have 

 been built. ... Its solvent action is responsible for furfural's 

 place in the synthetic rubber program, where it will be used 

 in a number of plants to purify butadiene by dissolving the 

 butadiene and thus separating it from undesired reaction 

 products." 



Several other farm crops are being used in the synthetic- 

 rubber program. Alcohol from grains, and from high-test 

 molasses, is converted into butadiene for the manufacture of 

 Buna S rubber. And in June, 1943, the Ontario Paper Com- 

 pany plant at Thorold, Ontario, began producing alcohol for 

 rubber from waste sulphite liquor a by-product of the man- 

 ufacture of sulphite pulp for paper. 



By-Products of Wood 



Mention of the Ontario plant serves to introduce the subject 

 of wood chemistry. We are inclined to forget that a tree, like 

 coal or oil, is a vegetable matter and can be made to produce 



