Our system is as pre-historic as many of the agricultural methods practised by the fellaheen in the Land of the Pharaohs. The potatoes are dug and then collected for storage in big clamps. These have to be opened at intervals to allow the contents to be turned over and inspected, to ascertain whether or no latent disease has asserted itself. The potatoes have to be graded and bagged preparatory for market, while there is the formidable item of transport to be considered. Between the harvesting of the crop and its ultimate disposal considerable handling ensues, while the difference in value between the “ware,” or table, potatoes and the “chats,” or those regarded as fit only for the pigs, is also very pronounced.
Contrast this method with what would obtain were we to develop the Continental system. After digging and grading the crop the farmer would merely be called upon to convey his harvest to the factory, when all anxiety, so far as he was concerned, would end. The method would be comparable with that pertaining to the handling of the wheat harvest in the great grain-growing countries, where the farmer is merely called upon to gather his grain and to haul it to the elevator. The saving in time and labour alone—two vital factors in these days—would be incalculable, while the risks of loss of crop would be completely obviated.
The super-scientific exploitation of the potato would extend far-reaching benefits in every direction. Not only would considerable stretches of derelict agricultural Britain be brought into productivity, but the very stimulation of the poor soils would bring about startling expansion in the production of artificial fertilizers, and would tend to stabilize such industries. In this way the recovery of waste in many other directions would be fostered—potash from the flues of the blast furnaces; basic slag from the dumps disfiguring the countryside in the vicinity of our ironworks; sulphate of ammonia from our gas and coking ovens; nitrates from the air. These would offer scope for employment, and tend to keep money within the confines of these islands, because the expansion of waste-recovery plants upon a sufficiently impressive scale in the interests of agriculture, with the local demand constituting the backbone of the trade, would encourage production for export. The labour thus absorbed would more than counter-balance the displacement experienced on the farms, and would redound to the benefit of the latter, because foods for poor and rich soils would be turned out in increasing streams and at lower prices. Thus it will be seen that any development of the potato, along modern scientific lines, and in such a way as to frustrate waste, must represent a big stride forward in the progressive cycle.
CHAPTER XII
CONVERTING NITROGENOUS REFUSE INTO SOAP
A startling corollary of contemporary economic conditions is the spirited struggle which is now being waged between the table and the bath. The structural fabric of the human body demands a certain proportion of fat to ensure its smooth rhythmic working in precisely the same way as a machine requires oil. At the same time a cleanser is necessary wherewith to scour the external surface of the body to obtain protection against the ravages of disease. Fat is essential to fulfil this mission also. But there is an insufficient supply forthcoming to meet the complete claims of both. So the question arises—Which shall be satisfied? Little Mary or Mother Hygeia?
When Mégè Mouries, animated by the contention that it was preferable for the poor of Paris to be able to obtain a first-class nutritive butter substitute in preference to butter of doubtful quality, advanced his discovery of margarine as the solution to this problem, he little realized what a tremendous upheaval his invention was destined to achieve, or the staggering problem it would ultimately present to civilization. Certainly for many years his butter substitute, contrived from animal fat and milk, was regarded askance by the community in general. It was grudgingly conceded to be a possible food only for the poorest of the poor—those denied the opportunity from lack of means to purchase butter of any description.
For many years margarine was the object of unprincipled prejudice and obloquy. It struggled desperately for recognition. Inventive effort was expended freely to render the product more and more attractive in appearance and flavour, to attract all classes of the community. Indeed, ingenuity was carried to such lengths as to produce a substitute impossible of detection from the genuine article, except by the most searching analysis.
But the rejected of 1871 has become the indispensable of 1919. The prevailing shortage of dairying products, confined not to one single country or even continent, but common to the whole world, has compelled the recognition of the virtues of margarine. The alternative is to go without, inasmuch as other edible fats, which might have taken the place of butter, have become unobtainable. But the British public, which fought the advance and claims of margarine for nearly half a century with a blind fury, and being forced to accept Hobson’s choice, has encountered a pleasant surprise. The criticized butter substitute is found to be not so bad as it has been painted. With improving acquaintance opinion has veered round and now admits, somewhat tardily perhaps, that what was once considered to be only the poor man’s butter is, in reality, an excellent foodstuff in itself, and preferable to many grades of the genuine article, some of which certainly are not above suspicion. To convey some idea of the enormous hold which this article of food has now secured upon the public it may be related that the turnover of one firm, specializing in the preparation of this product, aggregated no less than £22,000,000—$110,000,000—during the year 1918.
The increasing popularity of margarine speedily exercised a pronounced reaction upon the soap-manufacturing industry. The fats which were being utilized for the production of detergents were now demanded for conversion into foodstuffs. Hitherto, the soap-boiler has been regarded as the very lowest depths to which fatty waste can possibly sink. Thereto gravitated all the flotsam and jetsam of greases arising from other industries and in every stage of decay. But it did not matter how rancid the substance might be by the time it reached the soap-manufacturer. Here a scarcely credible metamorphosis could be effected, the most repellent raw material being transformed into the most attractive and fragrant acquisition to the toilet. Little wonder therefore that fats condemned as unfit or considered superfluous, though perfectly sound, for other use by man or beast, found their way to this mill. The soap-maker could absorb it all.
Thus, it will be seen, the soap trade is founded upon the commercial utilization of waste, and this raw material is drawn from the three kingdoms—animal, vegetable, and fish. As a matter of fact, the source of the fat is immaterial. It can be compelled to play its allotted part in the evolution of the cleansing agent.