REPORT OP THE SECRETARY. 197 



building, with 6 stories and basement, of approximately 100 rooms, 

 constructed especially for laboratory work. In addition there are 25 

 branch laboratories in cities throughout the country in Government 

 buildings or in suitable rented quarters. All the laboratories both 

 in and out of Washington are equipped with a complete line of scien- 

 tific apparatus well adapted for the work to be done. In 1901 the 

 Division of Chemistry was organized into a Bureau of Chemistry. 



METHODS OF ANALYSIS. 



In the application of chemistry to agriculture the first and most 

 important step is to develop methods of analysis. This foundation 

 work has been done in cooperation with the Association of Official 

 Agricultural Chemists, which is composed of the official chemists of 

 the United States. 



EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENT. 



Studies on the effect of environment on the composition of grains 

 and sugar-producing plants have been made by the Bureau of Chem- 

 istry and the Bureau of Plant Industry in cooperation with several 

 experiment stations. 



SIRUP INVESTIGATIONS. 



In 1903 a study was begun of the methods of making a better table 

 sirup from the ordinary sugar-producing plants, such as the maple 

 tree, sorghum, and sugar cane. The work was directed toward ascer- 

 taining methods whereby the product could be made purer, better, of 

 a more pleasing appearance, with less tendency to crystallization, and 

 have a greater resistance to fermentative processes. 



The manufacturing problems were taken up at Waycross, Ga., 

 where a model, sirup factory was erected, a special appropriation by 

 Congress having been made for that purpose. Four important prob- 

 lems were solved : 



(1) By arranging two mills tandem, each mill consisting of three 

 rolls, the amount of juice extracted from the cane was practically 

 doubled over the quantity usually extracted by the old-fashioned two- 

 roll mill generally used throughout the cane-producing sections of 

 the country. This is of the utmost importance to economical agri- 

 culture, since it is evidently most wasteful for the farmer to produce 

 by scientific methods and hard labor a larger crop, half of which is 

 wasted in the process of manufacture. 



(2) In addition to the great saving by extracting practically all 

 the juice from the cane, other economies in the process of manufacture 

 were worked out. One of the principal problems solved was that of 



