FARM RELIEF PLAN

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVIII, Issue 297, 1 December 1928, Page 12

FARM RELIEF PLAN

TURN WASTE PRODUCTS TO PROFIT. THE LITTLE WORD “IF.” Conversion of farm waste into industrial products through chemistry may prove to be an important factor in farm relief, Dr. Charles H. Herty adviser to the Chemical Foundation’ asserted in an address just delivered before the Engineering Foundation at the Union League Club here. Dr. Herty is a past president of the American Chemical Society. “If everything which is produced on the farm could be turned into profit,” he declared, “there would be no farm problem. ’ ’ Dr. Herty urged the establishment of a cellulose institute, financed jointly by the lumber, cotton, textile, and paper industries, to carry on research work by which new industries, new markets and new manufacturing advantages will be made possible. After 50 years of marvellous chemical progress in development oi coal tar products, the stage of stndardisation has been reached, he said, and now cellulose offers a promising field for outstanding experimentation in chemistry. “Already large numbers of new industries have been developed,” he continued, “and yet we know but little about the molecule of cellulose as compared with our knowledge of the molecule of coal-tar compounds.

“Industrial utilisation of cellulose has gone rapidly forward, and in the light of our knowledge of what has been accomplished in other directions, it can bo confidently predicted that with the aid of research a far greater forward movement is at hand.

“Entering the cellulose period means the harnessing of the energy of the sun working through trees and plants Ao multiply the world’s wealth and happiness.”