OTHER CHEMURGIC PROJECTS 



pounds a year and then have to eke out with another 

 half billion pounds of imported cassava, sago, and po- 

 tato starches. 



Figures like that rouse any chemurgic enthusiast. 

 Most of our domestic starch is grain starch from corn. 

 Nine or ten million pounds is root starch regularly pro- 

 vided from cull white potatoes. Like the many vegetable 

 oils, the various starches are almost interchangeable, 

 but certain ones are first choice for particular purposes. 

 In the textile industry sweet potato starch commands a 

 one-cent premium over corn, and one of the earliest 

 chemurgic ideas was to grow enough sweet potatoes to 

 declare our starch independence. It seemed a feasible 

 notion. Three hundred or more bushels of jumbos con- 

 tain more starch than any other temperate zone plant 

 can produce on an acre. The project stumbled repeat- 

 edly over the two familiar obstacles: the costs of sea- 

 sonal operation and the difficulty of securing enough 

 sweet potatoes to keep even a modest plant running at 

 capacity during as short a period as three months. 



The real test came during the depression. Relief 

 agencies were hunting any likely agricultural-industrial 

 project, and a federal grant was obtained for a sweet 

 potato starch factory to be located in an area of cutover 

 timberland. Laurel, Mississippi, was selected and a 

 commercial-scale plant installed. The process worked 

 and was improved considerably. A good starch was 

 made and sold at a premium price. The by-product pulp 



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