Food Oil Is Derived From Seed of Grape

1919

Newly Discovered By-product May Rival Olive Oil.

From the grape, source of wine now under a ban extra dry, is being derived a new food oil. It is pressed from the seeds which formerly were discarded. This recently discovered by-product has been tested by scientists who say that it is edible and nutritious and may become a rival of olive and cotton-seed oils for cooking and for salad dressing. The news has given comfort to growers of the vine in California, Ohio and New York State, as the preparation of the oil on a large scale may increase the profits from grape juice. Even after the oil has been pressed out the residue of the seeds is found to be of value as a feed for animals.

Dr. J. H. Shrader, who is connected with the bureau of plant industry, United States Department of Agriculture, has investigated the commercial utilization of grape seed. In a paper read before the division of industrial chemists and chemical engineers of the American Chemical Society, he suggested that all waste of this character from the vineyards and canneries be assembled at a center, so that there would be enough tonnage to make its fabrication profitable.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 9.

Catching Grasshoppers to Feed to the Poultry

1907

Use a Hopperdozer

That grasshoppers are good food for poultry is recognized, but in most cases the poultry have to catch their own grasshoppers. We do not commonly hear of anyone taking the trouble to catch grasshoppers for the poultry. The Colorado station this summer tried the experiment successfully.

The fields were visited by innumerable multitudes of grasshoppers, and the station men determined to catch a few bushels of them for the fowls. A hopperdozer was used and run behind a mowing machine at the time the hay was being made. The hopperdozer was mounted on wheels, so that it would not catch in the hay. Usually kerosene is used in the hopperdozer, thus killing the insects as they fall into it. But this would make the insects unfit for food.

A little experimenting showed that water would hold the insects for some time or until they could be flipped out for the use of the fowls. A hopperdozer was used on a six-acre field of alfalfa and it succeeded in catching from nine to ten bushels of grasshoppers, estimated at 3,000 to the bushel.

Chance for Inventive Genius

1910

By Col. J. M. Mabry of Memphis

Many persons wonder why no shrewd inventor has ever yet devised a machine that will pick cotton.

Many an inventive genius has worked at this problem, but as yet it is unsolved. There is no trick in getting up a contrivance that will do the work of picking, but that does not begin to solve the difficulty. The trouble lies mainly in the fact that the cotton does not all mature and open at the same time. A machine that may pick out the locks of the opened bolls cleverly enough will also take along the green and unopened bolls and therefore destroy a big part of the crop. The human pickers will let the unripe cotton alone and return to the fields for it later, on maturity. Then again the machine will take up a lot of trash, dead leaves and pieces of stalk that will cause much trouble and labor to get rid of before the cotton can be carried to the gin.

It is a great pity that some better way of extracting the fleecy stuff cannot be found, but there is apparently nothing to do except continue the old plan of gathering the crop by hand. This is a slow and also an expensive procedure, as in a good year almost every planter raises more than he can gather with his own labor and is thereby forced to hire outside help. Occasionally it is impossible to get this help and as a result much of the cotton is left in the fields to be waited for want of labor to pick it.

Man's Tomato Vines Resemble Jack's Bean Stalk

Irvington, Indiana, 1918

WHAT MIGHT HE HAVE DONE HAD HE KNOWN TOMATOES?

Although a Novice, W. M. Young Declares Vines Resembled "Jack's Bean Stalk"

W. M. Young, 28 Colorado avenue, Irvington, is wondering how large a tomato crop in the rear of his home would have been last summer had he been an expert agriculturist rather than a novice at the game.

Young, who is a busy man as traffic manager for the Nordyke & Marmon automobile and milling machine plant, sought some pastime as a relief from his "grind" at the office — a regular "nightmare" of less than car loads, differentials, freight tariffs, lost shipments and overcharges.

A kind neighbor found a solution. It was gardening. Tomato seeds were supplied and early last spring Young got busy with the spade. He kept busy and cared for the tender plants in the same gentle manner that an experienced farmer does his crops.

The vines continued to grow until they took on astounding proportions. Some of the vines climbed to a height of six feet, and Young says some of the tomatoes were "nearly" as large as red toy balloons. The season's yield from twenty-one vines was six bushels.

Young is planning to establish even a better record next summer and his entire back yard will be transformed into a garden for the exclusive development of a tomato crop.

—The Indianapolis Sunday Star, Indianapolis, November 23, 1918, page 4.