138 liEPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



(c) The forced feed of the cutters requires a few minor changes, ii. 

 order to prevent choking. 



{d) The ai)i)aratus for delivering the chips to the cells should be re- 

 Miodeled so as to dispense with the labor of one man. 



(3) The process of carbonatation for the purification of the juice is the 

 (tnly methorl which will give a pure limpid juice with a minimum of 

 waste and a maximum of purity. 



(4) By a proper combination of diffusion and carbonatation, our cx- 

 l)enments have demonstrated that fully 95 per cent, of the sugar in the 

 cane can be placed on the market, either as dry sugar or molasses. 



(.5) It is highly important that the Department complete the experi- 

 ments so successfully inaugurated, by making the changes in the diffu- 

 sion battery mentioned above and by erecting in connection with it a 

 complete carbonatation apparatus. 



WORK UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE ASSIST Ali:-' CHEMISTS. 



The results of the continuation of Mr. Clifford Eichardson's work upon 

 the cereals, which he has had in charge for several years, he has sum- 

 marized in the following pages : 



THE CEBEALS. 



The study of the cereals of the country, which has been in progress 

 for some time, has been continued and extended during the past year. 



It was originally undertaken with the idea of discovering the causes 

 which brought about such great variation in their chemical composition 

 and physical properties in order that the farmer might profit by a 

 knowledge of the conditions under which the best grain was grown and 

 of the localities where the most favorable conditions existed, and that 

 the field experimenter might have the aid of a scientific and chemical 

 study of his results. 



COEN. 



The first conclusions reached were in regard to corn and wheat. 



Corn was found, as all are well aware, to vary very largely in its 

 physical properties, but its cl.M.'mical composition was not by any means 

 so changeable, or they were at least within much smaller limits than 

 was the case with wheats. 



A study of the conditions of growth showed that this is in part due 

 to an extended i^eriod of vegetation and the great length of the roots as 

 compared with other cereals. It is thus enabled to secure from almost 

 any soil supplies of food which would be unavailable to wheat, and 

 during its slow growth store up the materials for the formation of the 

 grain, each in its proper relative proportion. 



The physical properties of the grain, especially its size, are of course 

 much influenced by the fertility of the soil and length of season. The 

 average weight of one hundred kernels of dent corn for the entire 

 United States being 36.74:8 grams, individual samples were found to 

 vary from 13.859 grams in one of the Northern States to 64.102 in Ten- 

 nessee. There would be, therefore, but little doubt that more corn 

 could be produced to the acre in Tennessee and the Southern States 

 than in the North, if other conditions were the same. This, however, is 

 not the case, and opens up the question of the effect of climate on the 



