COMMITTEES ON BEHALF OF THE GOVERNMENT 287 
the chemical work of the department, a large volume of testimony received from 
sugar manufacturers, and certain suggestions with regard to future investigations 
and the work of the department. The report is evidently the result of infinite care, 
and has been subjected to careful revision, and I trust it will be found a valuable 
text-book for those engaged in the sorghum sugar industry. As a review of the 
successes and failures which have attended this industry, it is invaluable. As a 
guide to those who are engaged in it, it contains all the important results that 
have thus far been obtained by the chemist in his laboratory and the manufacturer 
in his mill. This report, together with a most voluminous appendix, making an 
interesting mass of matter far too large to be inclosed in the annual volume of the 
department for this year, will be issued at an early day as a special publica- 
tion.” 125 
Although it appears to have been the intention of the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture to publish the report, it was not issued as a 
departmental document. On July 6, 1882, the Senate adopted 
a resolution calling on the Commissioner to transmit it to Con- 
gress for the use of that body, and it was published as Senate 
Miscellaneous Document no. 51, 47th Congress, 2d session.**” It 
did not leave the hands of the Commissioner until January 10, 
1883, however, and was not published until June of that year. 
It was the most voluminous report prepared by any committee 
of the Academy and covered 152 printed pages.*” 
Though conservative in their attitude, the committee speak in 
favorable terms of the outlook of the sorghum sugar industry, 
and express their faith in its future development. ‘“ As a work 
of national importance,” they remark, “calculated directly to 
benefit widely separated sections of the country, it is one that 
has been wisely undertaken and encouraged by the Department 
*5 Rep. Comm. Agric., 1882, p. 680. 
“° The resolution was as follows: 
Senate, July 6, 1882. “Mr. Windom submitted the following resolution; which was 
considered by unanimous consent and agreed to: Resolved, That the Commissioner of 
Agriculture be directed to furnish for the use of the Senate a copy of the report of the 
Committee of the National Academy of Sciences upon the subject of sorghum sugar,” 
Congressional Record, vol. 13, part 6, p. 5669, 47th Congress, 1st Session. 
** Forty-seventh Congress, 2d Session, Sen. Misc. Doc. no. 51. National Academy of 
Sciences. Investigation of the Scientific and Economic relations of the Sorghum sugar 
Industry, being a report made in response to a request from the Hon. George B. Loring, 
U. S. Commissioner of Agriculture, by a committee of the National Academy of Sciences. 
November, 1882. Washington: Government Printing Office. 1883. 8°. Pp. 1-152. 
