NOVEMBEE 22, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



693 



mand the intelligent animal husbandman 

 can utilize his store of feeding stuffs, and, 

 if necessary, by purchasing others, prepare 

 the proper rations for insuring the best 

 and most economical results. 



Chemistry has aided agriculture in many 

 other ways. The establishment of new in- 

 dustries like the manufacture of glucose, 

 which annually insures a market for the 

 surplus production of agricultural crops, 

 may be mentioned. Of much greater im- 

 portance to agriculture has been the estab- 

 lishment of the beet-sugar industry, since 

 it opened a field for the production of a 

 new agricultural crop on an immense scale. 

 Prom an almost hopeless beginning this in- 

 dustry has by the aid of science gradually 

 grown into one of the leading industries of 

 the world. 



When the German chemist, Margraf, ex- 

 amined the garden beet it was found to 

 contain only about four or five per cent, 

 of cane sugar. By careful selection and 

 analysis of mother beets, selecting only 

 those for seed which revealed the highest 

 content of sugar, the quality of this sugar- 

 producing plant was gradually improved. 

 When the writer was a student Professor 

 Wagner, the celebrated technologist of Ger- 

 many, found, upon analysis, individual beets 

 with a sugar content of twelve per cent. 

 He at that time expressed the hope that 

 by continued effort in the improvement of 

 the beet this exception might prove to be 

 the rule. The results to-day far exceed 

 his expectations. Individual beets have 

 been grown with a sugar content of twenty 

 per cent., and it is safe to say that in the 

 best sugar-beet countries the average con- 

 tent of sugar of beets delivered at the fac- 

 tories reaches sixteen per cent. The grad- 

 ual improvement in the quality of this 

 plant can be seen from the following sta- 

 tistics. For the production of one ton of 

 sugar there were required: 



In 1836 18 tons of beets. 



In 1842 16 tons of beets. 



In 1857 12 tons of beets. 



In 1871 11 tons of beets. 



In 1894 7% tons of beets. 



At the present time under favorable con- 

 ditions less than seven and one half tons 

 of beets are undoubtedly required to manu- 

 facture a ton of sugar. To show how this 

 industry has grown in importance it is only 

 necessary to say that of the total produc- 

 tion of sugar of the world in 1905, amount- 

 ing in round numbers to thirteen millions 

 of tons, seven millions of tons were pro- 

 duced from sugar beets. 



Other plants are no doubt capable of a 

 similar improvement, and in this connec- 

 tion the writer refers with great pleasure 

 to the work of, and result in, corn-breeding 

 inaugurated by Professor Hopkins, of this 

 institution. The production of corn rich 

 in starch for the manufacture ef starch, 

 alcohol and glucose, and rich in protein for 

 the stock-feeder, will add immensely to the 

 value and usefulness of this staple crop. 



Chemistry has rendered a great service 

 to agriculture in furnishing the means of 

 combating the insect and other enemies of 

 fruits and crops of various kinds. 



The liberal use of insecticides and fungi- 

 cides has saved many agricultural crops 

 from utter annihilation and has been in- 

 strumental in greatly increasing the yield 

 and improving the quality of agricultural 

 products. 



Weeds constitute another enemy of the 

 farmer's crops. Where cultivation can be 

 employed throughout the growing season 

 weeds can, of course, be kept down. But 

 in the growing of small grains and grasses 

 this method of destroying them is impos- 

 sible. In some countries the yield and 

 quality of this class of crops are greatly re- 

 duced by weeds. But chemistry has ap- 

 parently found a way to remedy this diffi- 

 culty. The latest achievement in this 



