AQRlCULTUnAI. AIMMIOPUIATION BIIJ-, 1«24. 253 



nK'tlioils of feeding. For yraiN we liiivo rr>ranl»'«| thr tliror Inr-_'«- 

 coinponciits of food i. o. fats. <'ail)oliy<lrat<'s. and protriris as lia\ ni_' 

 cortain woll-dcfiiiod sifjnifiranco, and rations have l)Pon huilt tip, 

 and textbooks have hccn written on the std)jeet of nutrition, based 

 on tliose three proxiniates of food niatermls. It is oidy witliin 

 recent voars that it has })eon determined that all proteins arc not 

 alike; t1iat thev vary p*<Mitly in the value of the aniino-aeids eom|)os- 

 in«; them, l)iit nothing has been done in an attempt t«) ^row crops of 

 specific j)rotein content. 



RE8BAKCH WOKK IN OIIJ4. 



Another phase of this research work lias to do witli oils. Here 

 we cjin point with some definite si»;nilicance to the icsults of research 

 wt)rk in an economit; way. A <;oo(l many decaih^s a<ro cotton scetl 

 was almost a waste product, but finally metliods of relitiin;; cotton- 

 seed oil were worked out by the chemist, and there was made avail- 

 able a «;reiit source of fat for human consumj)tion. Back of that, 

 however, there had been reseajch work done looking t«» the substi- 

 tution in some of the organic acids of certain chemical eh^ments 

 which would change the character of the oroduct. 



The chemist who first determined that hydrogen could be injecte<l 

 into a molecule of oleic ucid, thereby changing it into stearic acid, 

 made it possible to change an oil to a solid fat. The significance of 

 that was not apparent when it was done, but that very thing has 

 been worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to a^jriculture in this 

 (•ountry and especially the agriculture of the Soutli. Acconling to 

 the latest statistics I have, one firm, that puts out Crisco, manu- 

 factures annually, or did in 1010. (iO, 000.000 pounds of hardened fat. 

 based on this chemical investigation, which made it possible, throu^'h 

 a proper chemical reaction, to make liquid fat into a solid material 

 which could be used for shortening purposes. Of the approxhnately 

 1,400,000.000 pounds, according to the latest statistics we have, of 

 crude cottonseed oil. about 80 per cent is now used, either directly 

 or indirectly, in the hardened fat preparations. This has added 

 materially to the wealth of the Nation, and particularly to the wealth 

 of the South, hundreds of thousands of dollars. 



STUDY OF THE LOSS IN HANPUNO CRUDE COTTONSEED Oil.. 



Another project which we wish to expand is a study of the refining 

 loss in the handling of crude cottonseed oil. The unsaturated com- 

 pounds of the cottonseed oil would theoretically account for a 

 refining loss of only about 2 or 2.^ per cent, but, as a matter of fact, it 

 is nearly 10 per cent, due to the l^act that there are certain physical 

 and chemical difiiculties in the matter of refining that have not yet 

 been solved. If we could reduce the refining loss .) per cent, indeed, 

 if we could reduce it only 1 per cent, on the basis of 1,000,000,000 

 pounds of cottonseed oil, the economic gain would be enormous. 



These are three of the main projects, on which, if this increased 



appropriation is allowed, we propose to concentrate. Our plan has 



been to concentrate on those things which seemed to have the most 



important economic significance, and 1 think this statement perhaps 



' covers sufficiently the three projects which we propose to expand. 



