REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURB* 17 



other condiments esposed for sale have been largely adulterated. To 

 determine the character and extent of this adulteration the division 

 has undertaken a critical chemical and microscopic study of these 

 substances. The results of these studies, no^ ready for publication, 

 show that the expectation of adulteration has, unhappily, not been 

 disappointed, and also the nature of the adulterants used and the 

 chemical and microscopic manipulation necessary for their detec- 

 tion. 



(3) Commercial fertilizers. — The importance of accurate and uni- 

 form methods for the analysis of commercial fertilizers has long been 

 acknowledged. 



Accepting the invitation of the Department, the Association of 

 Official Agricultural Chemists held its third annual convention in the 

 rooms of the division, under the presidency of the chief Chemist. 

 Representatives were present from the experimental stations and 

 agricultural colleges of the country, and nearly all the State chemists 

 were in attendance. Uniform methods of analysis were adopted, and 

 the details of the manipulations have been published as Bulletin No. 

 12 of the division. 



(4) Experiments in the manufacture of sugar, — As a result of 

 the experiments carried on last year at Ottawa, Kansas, an account of 

 which was published in Bulletin No. 6, the Department was led to 

 continue the experiments at Fort Scott, Kansas. 



Congress made a liberal appropriation for continuing these experi- 

 ments, and the work of preparation was at once commenced on the 

 ajjproval of the bill, June 30, 1886. As a preliminary study the Chem- 

 ist of the Department had made a careful examination of the various 

 forms of machinery best adapted to the work, and a description of 

 this machinery was published as Bulletin No. 8. The machinery for 

 the experimental work was mostly constructed by the Pusey and Jones 

 Company, of Wilmington, Delaware, and it was erected in a building 

 provided by the Parkinson Sugar Company, at Fort Scott, Kansas. 

 It was only in the latter part of September that this machinery was 

 finally put into tolerable working order. All the mechanical diffi- 

 culties which the experiments at Ottawa had revealed were avoided 

 in the new machinery with the exception of the apparatus for mov- 

 ing the chips and slicing the cane, which, by neglect of the contractor, 

 was left just as it was used at Ottawa. This omission caused a great 

 deal of delay in the subsequent experiments. 



The result of the season's work showed that the extraction of the 

 sugar from the chipped cane proceeded with ease and to a degree 

 wholly satisfactory. Less than one-half of 1 per cent, of total sugars 

 out of the average 12 per cent, present was lost in the process of ex- 

 traction. A severe frost September 30 greatly injured the cane and 

 diminished the percentage of crystallizable sugar therein so rapidly, 

 that on the 22d of October no further crystallization could be ob- 

 AQ. '86—3 , 



