During World War II, Dow Chemical Co.was assigned a tough job. It had to make synthetic amino acids neededto speed the recovery of wounded soldiers. In doing the job, Dowexperimented with chickens, noted that the birds grew bigger and fasterwhen an amino acid called di-methionine was added to their diet. Dowthought di-methionine had commercial possibilities, but there was onehitch: it cost $11 a lb. Dow spent $200,000 on research, another$1,000,000 on a plant in Pittsburg, Calif, with a capacity of 2,000Ibs. of di-methionine a day. This week, Dow put di-methionine on themarket at $3 a lb., well within the reach of most poultrymen. Said Dow:one or two pounds of di-methionine added to a ton of feed will producea 10% larger chicken.