Edible Products, 



118 



[February, 1910. 



there is very little of the hard, silicious 

 coating when so cultivated as compared 

 with the hard coat of corn cultivated in 

 the ordinary way. Because of this the 

 whole substance of the corn stalk is 

 resolvable into pulp and cellulose, which 

 is said to be of the finest quality for 

 paper and for all the higher uses in the 

 arts, for which cotton cellulose is now 

 employed. The residue of field and fac- 

 tory products may be utilized to great 

 advantage for the production of pulp, 

 likewise for denatured alcohol and 

 cattle foods. • 



It is stated that the stalk of maize 

 when so cultivated will contain 88 

 per cent, of juice, of average sugar 

 or sucrose content of 13 per cent., yield- 

 ing 180 to 200 pounds of sucrose to the 

 short ton. From the plant there will 

 also be an average yield of 200 pounds 

 of refined pulp, or cellulose. The green 

 ears including the husks and foot stalks 

 of the ear contain about 20 per cent, of 

 their weight in fermentable matter, 

 readily convertible into about half its 



weight of about 95 per cent, alcohol, 

 leaving a residue of about 15 per cent, of 

 pulp and about half that amount of 

 richly albuminous foodstuff. 



Prof. Stewart has been experimenting 

 along these lines for many years, and 

 claims now that the work has passed 

 beyond the experimental stage, that it 

 is of national importance and should be 

 looked for as one of our natural re- 

 sources that are now commanding in so 

 great a degree the attention of the 

 American people. The production of a 

 valuable staple crop such as sugar, of a 

 vast amount of paper stock, which is now 

 lost entirely to the commerce of the 

 world is worthy of consideration and 

 attention, and he believes that the move- 

 ment now being iraugurated by the 

 national Government will result anyway 

 greatly to the advantage of the Ameri- 

 can people, and all the more so if this 

 one particular subject be taken into 

 consideration and its merits be investi- 

 gated. 



TIMBERS. 



WOOD-PRESERVING PROCESSES IN 

 GERMANY AND FRANCE- 



(From the Indian Trade Journal, Vol. 



XIV., No. 181, September 16, 1909.) 



Various methods of applying preser- 

 vatives to railroad ties and telegraph 

 poles, says the Journal of the Royal 

 Society of Arts, have been in practical 

 use in Europe for more than twenty 

 years. It would be difficult to find in 

 any advanced European State a single 

 railway, telegraph, or telephone line the 

 ties and poles of which have not been 

 impregnated with an antiseptic composi- 

 tion. Figures are published relating to 

 twenty German telegraphic lines, the 

 impregnated poles of which were set 

 at various intervals from 1877 to 1893. 

 Of those set in 1877 about 35 per cent, 

 were still sound and in use after twenty- 

 six years' service, and of those set from 

 1891 to 1893 there are records of five 

 lines upon which all the poles are still 

 standing. The American Consul-General 

 at Hamburg says that the Bavarian 

 postal service, after thirty years' experi- 

 ence, certifies that the known average 

 life of impregnated poles in Bavaria is 

 seventeen years and a half, and the 

 German Imperial Adminstration calcu- 

 lated, in 1903, that the known average 

 life of such poles was about sixteen 

 years. In the meantime the work of im- 



pregnation is being more perfectly 

 performed, so that future statistics will 

 show better results. In France, the 

 Eastern Railway Company announced, 

 in 1889, that in the twenty-four years 

 preceding 67 per cent, of its untreated 

 oak ties had been replaced, while only 

 16 per cent, of such as had been treated 

 with creosote had been removed. Beech 

 ties properly impregnated, according to 

 the chief engineer of that railway, have 

 an average life of thirty-five years. 

 More recent conclusions reached in the 

 same system were to the effect that 80 

 per cent, of creosoted beech ties were 

 good after twenty-seven years of 

 service, while only 54 per cent, of oak 

 ties treated in exactly the same manner 

 were good after twenty-four years of 

 service. The results of impregnation 

 appear so conclusive and undisputed 

 that it would be futile, says the Consul, 

 to present further details on the sub- 

 jects. In recent years the most useful 

 preservative agents in use have been 

 chloride of zinc, creosote, and bichlo- 

 ride of mercury, applied by imbibition, 

 or by impregnation by injection forced 

 by the pressure of the air. This second 

 method of treatment generally consists 

 in placing the wood in closed metallic 

 recipients from which the air is pumped, 

 and the liquid then introduced under 

 high pressure. Until compratively 



