CHAPTER IV 



INVESTIGATIONS AT THE COLLEGE 



WOHLER and his co-workers had inspired young 

 Goessmann with the spirit of investigation. He had 

 not been at the College long before he began a study of 

 Massachusetts agriculture, and the application of 

 chemistry thereto. During his long period of service 

 he investigated a large number of agricultural prob- 

 lems, the more important of which are referred to 

 in the pages which follow. 



I. PRODUCTION OF BEET SUGAR IN MASSACHUSETTS 



First Paper. Report on the production of beet sugar 

 as an agricultural enterprise in Massachusetts. (Eighth 

 Report of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, 1871.) 



In this paper he called attention to the large amount 

 of sugar imported into the United States, reviewed 

 briefly the sugar-cane industry of Louisiana, and then 

 gave a most instructive account of the entire method of 

 sugar-beet cultivation and manufacture in Europe and 

 of the general condition of the European sugar indus- 

 try. He declared that the success of the beet-sugar 

 industry in the United States depended, first, 'on a 

 careful selection of superior seeds of the best foreign 

 varieties, and subsequently of the choicest seed beets; 

 and, secondly, on the proper choice of lands which are 

 not only adapted to the cultivation of root-crops hi 



