Manufacturing Pectin

An improved process for manufacturing pectin from apple pomace (above, left) has been developed at the Albany, Calif., laboratory. Apple essence, another byproduct of apples, is being tested at the Philadelphia laboratory. In the photo at right, above, apple essence is being added to jelly to give it a flavor obtainable in no other way. A laboratory aide measures out the right amount of apple essence to give candy a characteristic apple flavor.

From whey, a byproduct of milk, the laboratory at Philadelphia has produced a rubber-like material known as lactoprene. Being resistant to oil, oxidation, sunlight, and heat, it seems to have possibilities for many special uses. A laboratory worker adds the initiator or catalyst to the lactoprene emulsion. A tensile-strength test is given to a strip of the vulcanized product and, a chunk of the lactoprene compound is being refined on a roll mill before it is vulcanized.

A wool-like fiber has been developed from casein, another byproduct of milk. Earle O. Whittier of the Bureau of Dairy Industry examines a tray of moist casein that has been partially dried in a special oven. The fiber takes wool dyes and thus can be blended with wool in making fabrics. Among the many uses found for soybeans, oil paint is significant.

Simplifying Farm Work

by E. C. YOUNG and L. S. HARDIN CAREFUL thought and study can reveal ways to do almost every farm job easier, faster, and more effectively. The job may be dairy chores, or cutting potatoes, raising tobacco, making hay, feeding hogs, picking tomatoes; the time spent in doing it can be reduced and a better job can be done.

Efficient farm production involves management decisions of at least two major types. One is concerned primarily with what to do-what crops and livestock to produce, what to feed the animals, what fertilizer and crop varieties to use, and what sanitary precautions to take against diseases. Such decisions are important. But much more is involved in getting efficient production than determining just what should be done.

Once the "what" is decided, the second type of decision, "how-to-do-it," must be made. The simplification of farm work is concerned primarily with the how-the work methods used in performing the countless tasks of the farm worker. It is the systematic application of ingenuity and common sense to searching out, developing, and using the easiest, most effective, and economical way to do a job.

As production scientists develop new technical improvements in what to do, a knowledge of how to use the innovations may be essential to their acceptance. Studies of how hog producers in the Corn Belt do their work, for example, show that most farmers know what should be done to produce hogs free of disease and parasites. But many farmers fail to raise hogs on clean rotation pasture because it is hard to get water to the hogs. When an easy way to water the hogs is not readily available, the whole hog sanitation program may break down.

In the past 20 years the average labor requirements for crops like corn, wheat, oats, and soybeans have dropped 20 to 40 percent. Recent studies of small groups of farms in Illinois show that an acre of corn can be produced with only about 7 hours of labor, and an acre of soybeans can be produced with about 4 hours of work; 20 years ago labor requirements were more than double those figures. While for the most part mechanical methods have replaced the man labor, there has been a net reduction in farm costs.

The average labor requirements for livestock work show no such decreases, however. It still takes farmers around 140 to 150 hours a year to care for a milk cow, 5 to 7 hours to raise a market hog, and around 2 hours a year to care for a hen. Requirements were essentially the same 20 years ago. The figures are especially significant when we recognize that chore work with livestock enterprises takes up one-third to one-half of the average farmer's yearly labor requirements.

The figures, however, are averages. Studies on individual farms by research workers in 12 State experiment stations show that farmers can do something about improving their work methods, that farmers are doing jobs easier and better while increasing production and reducing costs. How they are doing it is but a sample of how other alert farmers can and will improve their methods.

Work methods used by five efficient hog farmers in Indiana were studied for a year. There is still room for improvement, of course, but the farmers produced 225-pound market hogs in an average of 1.7 hours of work per head, compared to the Indiana average of 5 to 7 hours. The farmers produced 100 market hogs (raising spring and fall litters) in a total of about 7 weeks (500 hours) less work than average.

To do this they worked out and used a definite system of hog management and housing. Cropping systems were arranged for adequate clean rotation pasture. Pigs, sows, and fattening hogs had a definite place each season of the year. Preparatory jobs; cleaning, arranging houses, storing feed-were completed at odd times before needed. An easy method of providing adequate water was worked out. Depending upon the particular f arm's arrangement and needs, pressure water systems, field wells, or large-capacity water hauling systems were used. Feed was stored, prepared, and handled economically. Self-feeders, convenient field storage, self-feeding cribs, and feeding floors were used to minimize handling of grain. Adequate, economical equipment was provided. Plenty of farrowing houses, adequate fencing, supplemental farrowing heat (often homemade hovers), and a generous supply of small equipment aided in getting jobs done well with a minimum of time, cost, and hard work.

Some dairymen care for their herds in far less than the average 140 to 150 hours a cow a year. In northern Indiana a group of farmers with herds of 13 to 20 cows did the work in 92 hours per cow. A group of their neighbors with the same numbers of cows and similar equipment but poorer work methods spent an average of 153 hours per cow. Production rates and feeding efficiency were similar for the two groups of farms but the men with the larger labor requirements had higher costs.

In Vermont a dairy farmer, who had 22 cows and was already above average in efficiency, decided to improve his methods. In 4 months, with the aid of a research worker from the University of Vermont, he reduced his daily chore time by 2 hours, 5 minutes and reduced daily walking by 2 miles. His annual saving of 760 hours and 730 miles of walking was accomplished by practicing correct machine milking on a 4-minute time interval, rearranging the interior of the barn to permit circular travel, removing obstructive posts and sills and changing doors, putting loads on wheels, using feed, silage, and manure carts, locating hay chutes near mangers, throwing silage directly from silo to cart, and providing a convenient, readily accessible work center for equipment and supplies. He spent less than $50 and now does his work much more easily even though he has increased the size of his herd.

A Minnesota dairyman keeping 13 cows and 14 other cattle accomplished similar savings. He reduced his daily winter dairy chores from 3 hours, 39 minutes, to 2 hours and 45 minutes-a 27-percent saving. In doing this he is saving 37 percent of the walking, or 138 miles a year. His changes in work methods were similar to those of the Vermont farmer. Milking, feeding, and watering methods were changed, chore routes rearranged, and small equipment, including carts and drinking cups, were added. These and other studies provide some standards for comparison. They suggest, for example, that if machine milking is not completed in around 4 minutes per cow, methods need improvement.

In a preliminary study of methods used with Indiana farm poultry flocks, one poultryman did his daily chores in 1 1/2 minutes for each 100 hens; another spent more than an hour for that number of hens.

Preliminary studies of this kind indicate that poultry-chore time on some farms can be reduced by as much as one-half through proper planning, convenient feed storage, using deep litter and roosting racks, and making each trip count. A study in New York revealed that some poultrymen take care of 1,000 hens in 2 hours a day, but others care for the same number in 21 minutes.