Read it Again: Week of Oct. 11, 2001.

80 years ago this week. (From an address delivered at the meeting of the American Bankers’ Association in Los Angeles by A.E. Adams, president of the First National Bank and the Dollar Savings and Trust Co. of Youngstown):

“The greatest difficulty with us in the United States is that we are not self-reliant. We run to the government for everything. If we cannot find a house to rent just where we want it and when we want it, there is forthwith a housing problem that it is the business of the government immediately to solve. If we cannot sell all the steel we make or all the grain we grow at home, then there is an export problem and the government must promptly find ways to finance people in other countries who are not entitled to credit so they will buy our surplus… We are on the way to becoming a nation of mollycoddles, and the easy prey of demagogues and fanatics.”

50 years ago this week. Instead of throwing corn cobs away farmers in the foreseeable future may sell them as another source of income. It is believed that corncobs can be used as a substitute for gravel in making concrete.

Federal agricultural engineers, working in cooperation with specialists at Michigan State College, are trying to develop a lightweight concrete suitable for farm use. What they are after is a strong material, lighter than regular concrete with good insulating qualities. They have met with some success in using corncob pellets about 3/8 inches in diameter. The engineers found it necessary to soak the pellets in water for 5 to 6 hours before using them. Otherwise they absorbed moisture from the mix and caused the concrete to crack. The Department of Agriculture is not yet ready to recommend the use of cobs in this way.

25 years ago this week. This year’s Ohio bull test will be held in the new test station at the Eastern Ohio Research and Development Center in Belle Valley. Located in the heart of cow-calf country in southeastern Ohio, the station will have a 200 head capacity. Construction of the station is to be completed by Nov. 1, and will replace facilities in Wilmington. Planned and designed for ease of handling bulls, the station will have the most modern equipment for conducting the test.