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NEW WAYS OF SAVING MILLIONS 691
wanting, the Government was able to
supply the cider manufacturers with a
new product, readily marketable at a low
transportation cost and capable of use at
any time, thus indefinitely extending
the "cider season" and tending to
popularize this palatable and healthful
fruit beverage.
Fired by their success in producing
concentrated cider, the Government
chemists then determined to try the
same experiment with grape juice, another
product upon which transportation
charges are high on account of its
bulk. At present—on the old basis of
transportation charges—a quart of grape
in ice retails at from thirty to sixty cents.
The result exceeded even the most
sanguine expectations. Not only was
a clear, beautifully colored and highly
concentrated grape juice secured, but
tests showed that all the "argol"—the
substance which is responsible'for the
bitter taste of the grape—remained in
the ice. The syrup contained onl) the
essence of the grapes, readily convertible
into commercial grape juice by the
addition of four parts of water and
capable of a multitude of other uses
as a flavoring for confections and ice
creams. The process practically adapted
the grape to the soda fountain.
In addition, this chance discovery
HARVESTING HEMP HURDS. A "WASTE PRODUCT" FROM WHICH THE GOVERNMENT IS
NOW MAKING A FINE GRADE OF PAPER
opens up a large new field for grape
juice manufacture, in that it will
permit the utilization of varieties of
grapes formerly considered unfit for
grape juice on account of their high
percentage of argol. It will also mean
new life for rundown or unused icefactories,
which, at least in grape and
apple growing districts, are certain to
be in demand for the production of Llic
concentrated fruit juices.
It is in the Smith that some of the
most important work of' the Department
of Agriculture has taken place,
both in the prevention of waste and in
the utilization of waste products which
would otherwise seriously impair the
economic efficiency of the whole Dixie
country.
The States Relations Service, for
example, now lias more than four hundred
women agents employed in fifteen
of the Southern States, instructing the
residents of the rural districts in the
construction and use of labor-savin;
devices which render housework far
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