COMMITTEES ON BEHALF OF THE GOVERNMENT 287 



the chemical work of the department, a large volume of testimony received from 

 sugar manufacturers, and certain suggestions with regard to future investigations 

 and the work of the department. The report is evidently the result of infinite care, 

 and has been subjected to careful revision, and I trust it will be found a valuable 

 text-book for those engaged in the sorghum sugar industry. As a review of the 

 successes and failures which have attended this industry, it is invaluable. As a 

 guide to those who are engaged in it, it contains all the important results that 

 have thus far been obtained by the chemist in his laboratory and the manufacturer 

 in his mill. This report, together with a most voluminous appendix, making an 

 interesting mass of matter far too large to be inclosed in the annual volume of the 

 department for this year, will be issued at an early day as a special publica- 

 tion." 125 



Although it appears to have been the intention of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture to publish the report, it was not issued as a 

 departmental document. On July 6, 1882, the Senate adopted 

 a resolution calling on the Commissioner to transmit it to Con- 

 gress for the use of that body, and it was published as Senate 

 Miscellaneous Document no. 51, 47th Congress, 2d session. 126 It 

 did not leave the hands of the Commissioner until January 10, 

 1883, however, and was not published until June of that year. 

 It was the most voluminous report prepared by any committee 

 of the Academy and covered 152 printed pages. 127 



Though conservative in their attitude, the committee speak in 

 favorable terms of the outlook of the sorghum sugar industry, 

 and express their faith in its future development. " As a work 

 of national importance," they remark, " calculated directly to 

 benefit widely separated sections of the country, it is one that 

 has been wisely undertaken and encouraged by the Department 



125 Rep. Comm. Agric., 1882, p. 680. 



26 The resolution was as follows : 



Senate, July 6, 1882. "Mr. Windom submitted the following resolution; which was 

 considered by unanimous consent and agreed to: Resolved, That the Commissioner of 

 Agriculture be directed to furnish for the use of the Senate a copy of the report of the 

 Committee of the National Academy of Sciences upon the subject of sorghum sugar," 

 Congressional Record, vol. 13, part 6, p. 5669, 47th Congress, ist Session. 



127 Forty-seventh Congress, 2d Session, Sen. Misc. Doc. no. 51. National Academy of 

 Sciences. Investigation of the Scientific and Economic relations of the Sorghum sugar 

 Industry, being a report made in response to a request from the Hon. George B. Loring, 

 U. S. Commissioner of Agriculture, by a committee of the National Academy of Sciences. 

 November, 1882. Washington: Government Printing Office. 1883. 8. Pp. 1-152. 



