356 THE NEW AGRICULTURE. 



sible in intimate relations with the knowledge of chemistry. 

 It was only after a station had been established for the exper- 

 imental growth of the sorghum plant where the work could be 

 conducted under rigid chemical control that this interest was 

 enabled to enter upon the attainment of its present propor- 

 tions. After a continuous experiment of eight years, the per- 

 centage of sugar in the field crop was raised from 9 to 14 per 

 cent., the additional profits thus made possible serving as a 

 powerful stimulus to the business. 



The raising of sugar-beets and the beet-sugar industry is 

 another example of what chemistry is doing for agriculture. 

 Barely ten years have elapsed since the beginning of sugar- 

 beet culture in the United States. The industry is yet in its 

 infancy and seems capable of indefinite expansion. It is not 

 too much to say that but for the chemists the hundreds of 

 thousands of dollars already realized by our farmers for their 

 sugar-beets would not have been theirs to enjoy. In the first 

 place the seeds were procured from abroad by the general 

 government and distributed to the farmers free of cost, the 

 only stipulation being that samples of the beets grown, to- 

 gether with an account of the conditions under which they 

 were grown, should be sent to the department for analysis. 

 It was from the analytical data thus obtained together with 

 an analysis of soils that the conditions and locations best 

 suited to beet culture were determined. This area a great 

 triangle with its base on the Pacific Coast and its apex on 

 the Atlantic about New York has been regularly charted, 

 and thus not only has a profitable industry been made known 

 and, literally, established throughout a vast area, but thou- 

 sands of dollars have probably been saved to enterprising 

 farmers in other parts of the country who would have been 



