Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-11-05

looking to the introduction of the beet
sugar industry In this country seed
producing plant was established in Ne
braska, which was the first attempt ever
made by the Department of Agriculture
10 grow high grade sugar beet seeds. We
distributed to thousands of people all over
the country beet seeds with full instruc-
tons for their planting and cultivation.
with the request that they send samples
OF their crops to the bureau for analysis.
In this way we learned what section
of the country produced the richest beets,
and a map was then made of belt one
hundred miles wide, extending from the
Atlantic to the Pacific, showing the area
ia which the soil and the rainfall were
favo able and where the richest beets
could be produced. 1t is a remarka BILE
fact that every beet sugar factory in this
country today is located in the area
marked out by the bureau of chemistry
nearly twenty years ago. This work
saved many millions of dollars from be-
ing invested in localities not favorable to
the production of beets of the highest
character.
Eat all important agricultural stations
work was then started In studying the
effect of environment and chemical COM
position of the crop. The effect Of eli
mate and other conditions upon the char
acter of wheat, sweet corn, Indian corn,
sugar beets and cantaloupes has been ex-
tensively studied for many years and ex-
tended over widely separated sections of
the United States.
Zone of my immediate duties in con-
nection with the work in the department
has been in relation to the association
of official agricultural chemists as bear
ing on the bureau work. / have served
for twenty-six years as secretary and
executive officer of this association, and
during this time methods Of record and
research have been comparatively studied
and the unification OF these activities
has been secured The work of this as
ISOLATION has become a model for all
other countries. but no country has yet
succeeded in perfecting an organization
of agriculture chemists like that found
in America.
.srhe past few years a great part Of
my time has been given to problems re-
lating to the adulteration and misbrand-
ing OF foods and drugs. In 1885 l start
ed TO publish bulletin, No. ID, of the
bureau of chemistry, which was devoted
TO a careful study of the adulteration or
foods. This work consisted of nine parts.
making in all more than 1900 pages.
Based on facts established by this work.
agitation for the regulation and cure or
the evils disclosed was begun and con-
tinued for many years, until In 1906 IT
resulted in the enactment of the national
pure food and drug law.
In 1902 i began an extensive series or
experiments with my poison squad" The
extremely valuable results Of these In
vestigation. are contained in seven bulle-
tins, but the two most important bull
letins have never been published: those
on the effects of copper sulphate upon
health, and the other relating to potas-
sum nitrate or salpeter on health. In
both instances these substances have
been found exceedingly harmful to the
human system. The effort made by me
to exclude all chemical personalities from
foods was based on the results obtained
by these experiments.
I'm regard to the future work of the
bureau 1 can only speak as an uninspired
and perhaps biased prophet. My prtn-
cipal object in life now Is to preach the
gospel Of sanitation and 'propbylactics,