Miscellaneous. 165 



five-sixths of a gallon of alcohol. Potatoes unfit for human con- 

 sumption will produce as much alcohol, bushel for bushel, as the 

 better varieties. The yield per acre of these cheap varieties is 

 double that of the varieties suitable for human food. 



Secretary Wilson, in his statement before the Ways and Means 

 Committee last spring, said that it was quite within bounds to place 

 the yield in alcohol from an acre of potatoes at 500 gallons. The 

 special adaptability of the soil and climate in many sections of this 

 country to produce potatoes will make the potato an important 

 factor in the question of the production of alcohol. 



Considerable investigation has been made of the other sources 

 of alcohol. Actual experiment has demonstrated that there is as 

 much alcohol in the stalks of an acre of corn as there is in the corn ; 

 but to use the stalks in the manufacture of alcohol, they must 

 be harvested at a time when the corn is maturing. 



If, at the proper time, the stalk could be harvested and pre- 

 served for future use, then those who are searching for cheap 

 light, heat and power could stop at the cornstalk and exclaim, 

 "Here we rest!" for there is enough alcohol in the cornstalks grown 

 in the United States to supply the world. 



Wood sawdust is another source of ethyl alcohol. If experi- 

 ments now being made in Southern Mississippi in a process of 

 producing ethyl alcohol from the fermentable matter in wood saw- 

 dust prove successful, and it is found that the millions of tons of 

 sawdust now thrown away can be utilized in the production of so 

 important an agent as alcohol, there will be no limit to what may 

 reasonably be expected from tax-free alcohol. 



At present, however, we must look to molasses, potatoes and 

 com, in the order named, as the producer of cheap alcohol. Alco- 

 hol produced first cost at 15 cents a gallon will prove a sharp com- 

 petitor of gasoline and kerosene. 



The government stands all cost of supervision; therefore, the 

 only burdens that denatured alcohol will carry into the market will, 

 be the cost of the ethyl alcohol, the labor incident to denaturation 

 and the cost of the denaturing agent. The denaturing agents will 

 be efficient both as denaturants and in the use to which the alcohol 

 is put ; therefore, the cost of denaturation will be reduced to a min- 

 imum. 



The first cost of denatured alcohol with ethyl alcohol at 15 

 cents a gallon will be about 20 cents a gallon. Adding 5 cents a gal- 

 lon as profit for the distiller and the middleman, the best that can 

 be expected with ethyl alcohol at 15 cents a gallon, first cost, will 

 be 25 cents a gallon. 



