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REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE, 11 
Department by nearly 150,000 copies. But this does not include all 
the information disseminated by the Department. Congress dis- 
tributed, through its Members and Senators, 375,000 copies of the 
_ Department’s Annual Report of last year, and, in addition, also dis- 
_ tributed directly several thousand volumes of special reports pre- 
‘pared by the Department. 
Nor does this indicate fully the wide-spread interest in the work 
in which the Department is engaged. Invitations are constantly 
being received by the Department to send its representatives in some 
particular branch of science to conventions and meetings that are 
- called to discuss the problems of agriculture. I have considered it 
_ my highest duty to respond to this demand as far as possible, and I 
have sent agents to various parts of the country to meet with and 
_ eonfer with the people for the purpose of discussing those questions | 
_ which relate to the common weal. The Department has exchanged 
in this way the experiences of science for those of practice, and its 
agents have been enabled to acquaint themselves with the immedi- 
_ ate wants of those assembled and to supply the information required 
_ to institute the needed investigations. It will be realized, therefore, 
that the Department of Agriculture, through its publications and 
through these efforts, may benefit incaleulably a vast constituency, 
and that a successful administration of its affairs can only be con- 
ducted through a vigilant, energetic, and progressive policy. 
During the year I have constantly endeavored to administer the 
office in this spirit. There have been experiments conducted which 
promise interesting results, and one of which bids fair to signalize 
the year of 1887 as one of the most important in our history. The 
manufacture of sugar from sorghum is a question to which time 
and money have been devoted by Government and by private enter- 
prise. Varied successes have been achieved. Success has alternated 
with failure, from a financial point of view; encouragement has 
given way to discouragement, and enthusiasm to lethargy, until 
recently, when the Department conceived the idea of applying an 
entirely new process, so far as sorghum was concerned, but one 
known throughout Europe as applied to the extraction of sugar from 
the beet. 
Enough was shown in experimental work with the diffusion process 
_ to justify me in sending an agent abroad to study the details of the 
_ machinery, to personally examine the several methods of manipula- 
_ tion, etc., and to acquaint himself generally with those points, in de- 
tail, which might be conducive of success. In this, asin many other 
instances that might be cited, the information and experience thus 
secured proved to be only the germ of what was to be the new process, 
American genius and American thought quickly applying themselves 
and solving the mechanical and other difficulties which were as sure 
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