A weed goes to war, and Michigan provides the ammunition

Content provided by Michigan History magazine

Late in World War II, the common milkweed was often the only thing that kept a downed aviator or soaking-wet sailor from slipping beneath the waves. The plant’s floss was used as the all-important filler for flotation devices.

The northwest part of the Lower Peninsula, particularly the area around Petoskey, became the country’s picking and processing center for milkweed floss. By the time the war ended, an army of citizens—including schoolchildren—led by a visionary doctor had helped keep America’s servicemen safe from harm.

In the early 20th century, the typical filler for life preservers was a material called “kapok.” A cottony fiber extracted from the pods of the ceiba tree, kapok was cultivated in the rainforests of Asia. America’s primary source for this material was the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia).

Then, in 1937, came Japan’s invasion of China, which initiated World War II in the Pacific. By the time the U.S. entered the war four years later, access to Asian kapok had been effectively cut off. A replacement for this critical material was needed to protect airmen and seamen from drowning. Cattail down, feathers, and “Bubblfil” (a plastic substance developed by Du Pont) were among the possibilities the military considered.

Enter Dr. Boris Berkman, a Chicago physician and inventor who was a champion of the milkweed, long considered a noxious weed to farmers. Berkman envisioned this plant as a new crop rivaling the soybean in usefulness. He suggested more than 20 uses for the plant’s stems, leaves, and pods: among them insulation, pressed board, oil, animal food, rayon, cellophane, dynamite, surgical dressing, and textile fibers. In his 1939 patent application for a milkweed gin to process the plant, he asserted that “milkweed is an American crop capable of producing untold benefits to the American farmer, and not subject to the uncertainties attending the importation of foreign raw materials.”

Milkweed floss as a filler for life preservers was another of his ideas. Berkman confidently proclaimed that the material was even better than kapok for the job, and could be processed more efficiently. He was invited to present his case before a congressional agriculture committee in March 1942. Extensive tests conducted by the U.S. Navy showed that a little over a pound of milkweed floss could keep a 150-pound man floating in the water for more than 40 hours. Based on the strength of this evidence, the federal government elevated the status of the weed to that of a wartime strategic material and quickly appropriated $225,000 to build a processing facility.

Petoskey Was Prime

Surveys conducted by representatives of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) had shown that the 12-county area surrounding the city of Petoskey was home to the “largest concentration of wild milkweed in the country.” Additionally, Petoskey was easily accessible by road, rail, and ship. All that was needed was a place to process the milkweed pods; the government solved that problem by appropriating the buildings and grounds of the Preston Feather & Sons Lumber Company, located along the Pennsylvania Railroad switch track at Sheridan Street. This transaction occurred in August 1942.

Boris Berkman was named president and L.J. Lyon vice president and treasurer of the organization created to spearhead this effort. It was placed under the umbrella of War Hemp Industries, Inc., which in turn was part of the Commodity Credit Corporation and answerable to the USDA. A huge sign on the road-facing side of the Preston Feather complex summed up this pedigree under the heading of the “Milkweed Floss Corporation of America.”

A temporary setup enabled the plant’s 80 employees to process the 1942 harvest. Then, in November 1943, the new machinery was finally installed and turned on. Running at top capacity, the Petoskey works contained seven milkweed gins and a full dryer unit. The temporary space was converted to dry pod storage and a business office was set up downtown in a former Michigan Bell building.

Processing the Pods

As described by Berkman, processing was broken down into five stages. First, bagged pods were sent through the dryer on a conveyor belt to remove excess moisture (60 percent by volume) at the rate of 1,000 bags per hour. They were then lifted to the second floor, where the contents of the bags were emptied by hand into a hopper feeding the gins below. There, the pods were gently crushed between two rubber-coated drums, an action that opened them along their natural seams. A horizontal drum, equipped with beater bars, further agitated the pods and released the floss, to be carried off by air current and deposited into a collecting-and-bagging chamber. The broken pod shells and seeds fell onto a perforated grate and were gravity-sifted into separate collecting bins.

Only two parts of the process required manual contact: opening the bags of dried pods and picking the pods. Pod picking, however, was the most crucial step and relied heavily on the labor of children as well as adults. The fact that this operation worked at all was testament to a civilian army encompassing people in 25 states and two Canadian provinces.

Picking at the Right Time

Picking was a low-tech, labor-intensive task, requiring some knowledge of the plant and the seasonal variations that affected it.

There are more than 20 kinds of milkweed in North America, but the specific type targeted for the wartime effort was the common milkweed (Asclepius syriaca). A medium-sized perennial, it has a tough central stalk and thick, leathery leaves. The seed pods erupt out of the flower clusters located on the upper reaches of the stalk. Under natural conditions, these pods split open along a central seam, and the flat brown seeds—each attached to a tuft of silky fibers (floss)—are then parachuted away by the wind. The timing of this liberating event varies from year to year and can occur anytime between early September and mid-October.

It was crucial for processing that the pods be picked while they were ripe but not yet fully open. Too early, and the crop would be spoiled by moisture. Too late, and there would be no crop at all. Instructions were broadcast via newspapers and bulletins, containing tips such as “Pick in early fall when the seeds are brown” and “Top pods ripen first.” After picking, volunteers were advised that “the bags should be hung out in the open to dry… . A simple way of hanging up bags is to tie the tops of two together and saddle them over [a] fence.”

Collection points and drying stations were set up throughout Michigan (and out of state from Wisconsin to New Hampshire), so that pickers didn’t have to deliver the pods directly to Petoskey. Rural stores and small businesses were among the collection points. The Emmet County fairground was used as a drying station, as were the Cadillac and Traverse City fairgrounds. Bags were hung from every available fence and building. In St. Ignace, the football field was used for this purpose as well.

Pickers entered their fields knowing that it took approximately two full bags, or about 20 pounds of ripe pods, to produce enough floss for one life jacket; “Two Bags Save One Life” was the government slogan. This fact provided a simple message to all involved: that they were doing their part for the war effort. And most of them understood this. In September 1944, Claude Wilson, supervisor of the Otsego County pod collection program, reported a rare incident to the local newspaper: Individuals had stolen bags from the Vanderbilt station and resold them elsewhere. He sternly reminded the unknown perpetrators that they were dealing with federal property and that “Uncle Sam is one fellow we don’t want mad at us.”