PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY AND AFFILIATED 



SOCIETIES 



THE CHEMICAL SOCIETY 



The 236th meeting was held at the Cosmos Club on Thursday, March 

 12, 1914. Mr. Milton G. Wolf of the Bureau of Chemistry was elected 

 to associate membership. The following papers were presented by 

 members of the Bureau of Plant Industry: 



R. H. True, of the Office of Plant Physiological and Fermentation 

 Investigations: Alcohol and agriculture in Germany. The manufacture 

 of agricultural alcohol has been more successful in Germany than else- 

 where, largely due to the practise of utilizing the sandy lands of the east- 

 ern provinces. Potatoes are grown in rotation with grains, clover, and 

 other pasture crops, together with a considerable development of the 

 dairA' industr3^ The best potatoes are usually sold for human con- 

 sumption, the culls and surplus being used to feed stock and in part for 

 the manufacture of alcohol. The distillery is valuable chiefly because 

 it enables the farmer to grow more potatoes which in turn makes it 

 possible to improve more land and results in the great increase of all 

 crops through the system of rotation and fertilization followed. It is 

 probable that few distilleries pay actual expenses from the sale of the 

 alcohol made, the profits coming rather from the enterprise as a whole 

 than from any one feature. Thus, alcohol distillation is thought to pay. 

 The legal relations have been determined by two objects, (1) to secure 

 revenue, (2) to discourage the distillation of alcohol for beverage pur- 

 poses and to increase its use for industrial purposes. The outlook for 

 industrial alcohol in the United States as a separate agricultural proposi- 

 tion is not encouraging. If it be combined with a proper agricultural 

 system and handled by a technically trained man, the outlook is much 

 better. (Author's abstract.) 



Discussion. In reply to inquiries by Gore and I. K. Phelps, it was 

 stated that about 28 per cent of the potato crop of Germany is used for 

 food, about 5.8 for alcohol manufacture, and about 40 per cent for stock 

 feed. Sugar producing plants do not at present seem a promising source 

 of alcohol as compared with starch plants. W. B. Clark stated that the 

 cost of agricultural alcohol in Cuba is now very low. 



W. W. Garner, C. W. Bacon, and C. L. Foubert, of the Office of 

 Tobacco and Plant Nutrition Investigations: Changes that take place in 

 the curing of cigar-leaf tobacco. Read by Mr. Bacon. The curing of 

 tobacco has been shown to be a life process, consisting essentially of the 

 phenomena known to the plant physiologist as respiration and transloca- 

 tion. Curing on the stalk and bj^ picking the leaves have been investi- 



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