470 



The bodies separated from sorghum sirups by alcohol have also been 

 studied aud tbimd to contain a number of new gums and mncilages 

 of interesting chemical composition. 



It is believed, from the data obtained in the laboratory, that the yield 

 of sugar from sorghum can be increased fully 33 per cent by the appli- 

 cation of this method and that the amount of alcohol wasted in the 

 process will not exceed 5, or at most 10 per cent of the ciuantity used. 

 If the revenue laws can be so changed as to permit the manufacture of 

 alcohol from the residue of the sorghum factories, it is tliought that 

 the alcohol can be produced, ready for use, at an expense of not more 

 than 8 to 10 cents per gallon. If these suppositions are borne out in a 

 practical way, it is seen at once that this method of ])roducing sugar 

 must come into common use and thus help, in a marked degree, to estab- 

 lish the sorghum-sugar industry on a firm commercial basis. 



The Governor of Alabama recently vetoed a bill, passed by the State 

 legislature, which provided for the distribution of the funds received 

 by the State under the act of Congress of March 2, 1887, among the 

 four experiment stations now in operation in the State. The veto was 

 sustained by the legislature. The grounds of the Governor's action, as 

 stated in his message, are briefly these : (1) The State having assented 

 to the act of Congress and designated the Agricultural and Mechanical 

 College of Alabama as the beneficiary to receive the funds granted by 

 the act, has exhausted its control over the subject. " The beneficiary so 

 appointed by the general assembly then stood in the eye of the law as 

 though it had been solely and exclusively named in the act of Congress 

 itself." (2) " There is an evident purpose in the bill (i e. the act of 

 Congress) to give permanency to the experiment station. * * * jf 

 separate stations can be increased at the will of the legislature, the 

 purpose would be measurably defeated." (3) While Congress exhausted 

 the power of selection of the beneficiary of this act after the State once 

 exercised such power, it left the State ample power to direct the 

 colleges or stations receiving the benefits of the act how and where to 

 carry on the experiments. (4) The three stations in Alabama which 

 are not located at the Agricultural and Mechanical College are " branch 

 stations" only in name. 



Neither the Canebrake Agricultural Experiment Station nor the others mentioned 

 in the bill, are under the direction or operated in connection with the Agricultural and 

 Mechanical College of Alabama. The Agricultural aud Mechanical College of Alabama 

 has nothing whatever to do with their management, or in shaping the experimeuts 

 or supervisiug their conduct in any way. They do not even send reports to the college. 

 They are governed by separate and distinct boards, having no legal connection 

 with each other. They are separate and independent in law and in fact. It is 

 true that the director of the experiment station of the college is one of the trustees or 

 governing board of each of the three experiment stations, but he is not even a trustee 



