Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-05-17

of soil and climate. The beets thus
grown have been analysed and their
saccharine qualities ascertained. We
pay in the neighborhood of 100000 900
annually for sugar. Our experimental
ton so far has demonstrated that it is
entirely practicable to make at nome
all the sugar consumed in the United
States.
investigations have been made by
the chemical division into meats of all
descriptions. Hundreds of samples
have been purchased in the open mar
kets or secured from dealers and sub
jected to examinations by uniform
methods. The objects in view have
been to determine the food value of
the samples, and the detection of any
ldeleterious substances which may have
been used in preserving the meats. The
results of the Investigations have
shown that as a rule preserved Ameri-
can meats are practically free from
preservatives of an injurious character.
| A study of the characteristics OF horse
| flesh is being prosecuted. The meat
has not been offered in the American
market, as far as we can ascertain.
The division finds it entirely practical
BILE, by means of chemical and micro
scopical methods to detect horse meat
wherever used in considerable guam
titles.
IAN investigation is being made into
the gluten contents of wheat. Where
wheat is grown perpetually on the
same soil, without rotation with other
crops, the plant food is reduced, par
ticularly the heterogeneous element, re-
sulting not only in smaller yields of
wheat, but in wheat deficient in Nitro
gen. Wheats grown on the Pacific
coast a few years ago were used eN-
clusively by macaroni makers. 1t has
| been ascertained that the depreciation
in the gluten contents of these wheats
has rendered them undesirable for that
purpose. Upon this hint the depart
ment has been exporting wheats rich
in gluten from foreign countries, in
order that the manufacturer of maca-
roni might be encouraged within the
United States.
| Under the present administration
the work of the Office of experiment
stations has more than doubled This
/ is due in part to the development of
old enterprises and in part to the es-
tablishment Of new ones. The key
note of the present policy is co-opera-
ton. Thru the department. and the
eXneriment station thousands of prac-
tical experiments are now annually
carried on in cooperation with farm
ers in all sections of the union.
The Investigations into the lucre-
tive value of human foods, which are
carried on in cooperation. with the
agricultural colleges and experiment
stations in different parts Of the coun-
try, have been materially developed
and strengthened.
"A study is being made of the irri-
gable regions west of the Missouri and
in other parts of the United States.
The collation. and publication of in
formation regarding the laws and in
situations Of irrigated regions in their
relation to agriculture, forms one line
of this work, and the actual determina-
| ton of the volume of water used by
practical irrigators on different crops
and soils forms another. Both investi-
igations are being Systematically push
ed. The work has already been car
ried on in fifteen states and territories
largely in cooperation with the agri-
| cultural experiment stations and state
irrigation engineers. In this enterprise
the department is working along
lines which are new in this country,
and it is believed that an organization
has been perfected which is thoroly
efficient SO that shortly there will be
developed a trained force of experts
whose services will be of incalculable
value to a region which embraces over
a third Of the union. The department.
finds also, in its experimentation in tea
growing, that where sixty inches ef
rainfall occurs annually in the guls
states there are periods when irriga-
ton would be valuable to force The
growth of the tea plant in order that
more picllings might be had.
'Of the work accomplished by the
section of foreign markets, during the
last three years, one of the most i'm
portant features was the study of the
trade possibilities growing out of the
Spanish-American war-a trade which
is extending very rapidly"