Position of Chemistry as a Factor in Agricultural Advancement. 951 



were used alone in the manufacture of the two first products given 

 above. Practically, the whole of the starch produced in America is 

 derived from the grains of maize, which contain up to 65 per cent, 

 of this material. The amount of maize required in the starch 

 industry is said to even exceed that used in the manufacture of 

 glucose, although the glucose industry in the States is one of immense 

 proportions. Used in the liquid form for table syrups, confectionery 

 purposes, and admixture with molasses and honey ; and in the solid 

 form as a substitute for. malt in brewing, this product, required for 

 its manufacture in the year 1897 as much as 40,000,000 bushels of 

 grain. The manufacture of whisky, all commercial alcohols, and 

 alcoholic products, also requires very large quantities of maize, as 

 nearly the whole of these products used in the United States are 

 derived from this source. Underlying the manufacture of all these 

 materials are chemical processes, and the industries may be regarded 

 as resting principally on chemical foundations. Chemistry, however, 

 has gone fui'ther than the consideration of the primary product of 

 manufacture, and has looked into the nature of the various by- 

 products, and discovered in the residues from the manufacture of 

 the three materials, just dealt with, a source of cattle feed of the 

 highest feeding value. It has also discovered in the pith of the 

 plant qualities which have opened up the possibilities of new uses ; it 

 having recently been found suitable for the manufacture of gun 

 cotton, high explosives, and pyroxilin varnishes, besides proving of 

 use, owing to its resilience and pomsity, in battleships. 



The Production of Beet Sugar- 



The most striking instance, however, of the marvellous industrial 

 developments which may result as the outcome of chemical investiga- 

 tion and advice, is the beet sugar industry. The history of the little 

 plant, taken to Bohemia by the barbarians after the fall of the Roman 

 Empire, reads almost like a romance. Its content of sugar had been 

 guessed at some time earlier ; but it was only in 1747 that Margaff, a 

 Prussian chemist, determined the percentage and extracted the 

 saccharine matter. Some considerable time after, the researches of 

 Margaff were continued by a second chemist, Archard, Avho attempted 

 to apply practically the somewhat theoretical laboratory discoveries 

 of his predecessor ; but the first extraction of the factory amounted to 

 2 per cent. only. From this period on, by careful selection based on 

 chemical control, the plant of a little more than 100 years ago, 

 analysing its 5 per cent, of sugar only, has been so im])roved that its 

 sugar content may be now put down at 16 per cent., while the factory 

 extraction, through improved processes, has almost reached perfection. 

 Nowhere, in the whole domain of agriculture, has chemistry achieved 

 such a brilliant success, and laid the farmer open to such a debt of 

 gratitude as in this particular industry. It was little thought, 150 

 years ago, that the quiet researches of an almost unknown chemist 

 would result in the establishment of this great enterprise, which has 

 already revolutionised the agi'iculture of the greater part of the 

 Old World, and promises to effect a similar change in that of the 



