BOLLE TIN OF THE 
SV USDEPARIMENT OF AGRICUL Me 
No. 182 
Contribution from the Bureau of Plant re ae Wm. A. Taylor, Chief. 
February 2, 1915. 
(PROFESSIONAL PAPER.) 
AGRICULTURAL ALCOHOL: STUDIES OF ITS MANU- 
FACTURE IN GERMANY. ' 
By EDWARD KREMERS, 
Special Agent, Plant Physiological and Fermentation Investigations. 
REVIEW OF THE PROBLEM OF MANUFACTURE. 
INTRODUCTION. 
The brandy (Branntwein) which in the fourteenth century was 
brought over the Alps from Italy to Germany found in the fifteenth 
century a competitor in a whisky (Kornbranntwein) which was 
made from cereals. The distilled fermented grape juice (wine) of 
1 arly in the fiscal year 1907-8 the Bureau of Plant Industry began an investigation 
of the problem of utilizing the waste and surplus products of American farms as a source 
for the manufacture of denatured alcohol. In view of the vast possibilities of this in- 
vestigation, involving important questions not only of agricultural but likewise of 
economic and social import, it was deemed wise first of all to seek guidance from 
European experience. It seemed especially desirable to study the situation in Germany, 
where for a considerable period of time industrial alcohol from agricultural sources has 
been most conspicuously successful. Accordingly, arrangements were made to send Dr. 
Edward Kremers, of the University of Wisconsin, as special agent to visit those coun- 
tries of Europe in which agricultural alcohol has been most prominently developed and 
to study as thoroughly as his stay would permit those factors likely to prove most im- 
portant to America. As was anticipated, relatively little practical aid was obtained on 
the agricultural phases of the problem from England, Belgium, Holland, or France, and 
the greater part of Dr. Kremers’ attention was given to the conditions to be observed in 
Germany. 
The preparation for publication of Dr. Kremers’ report was undertaken by Dr. Rodney 
H. True, Physiologist in Charge of the Office of Plant Physiological and Fermentation 
Investigations, of this bureau. 
This report brings out the fact that the success of agricultural alcohol in Germany 
is the result of long-continued experimentation, backed by a determination on the part 
of those high in authority that the project should succeed. Private enterprise patrioti- 
cally combined for this definite purpose rather than for private gain seems to have been 
a factor hardly less effective. The development of agricultural alcohol is found to be 
based on the principles of operation characteristic of manufacturing enterprises, and it 
| bears little resemblance to the small farm enterprise to which many in this country have 
looked forward. Alcohol is seen to be not a separable source of income to the German 
landowner but a necessary factor in a large agricultural operation, the profits appearing 
- rather in enhanced land values, larger yields of grain and forage crops, and in the dairy 
products made possible by the crops produced. 
It is perhaps not to be expected that America can proceed along the same lines as 
Germany, but in our attempt to solve this problem of crops to afford light, heat, and 
power there is much of value in the German experience.—WM. A. Taytor, Chief of 
Bureau. 
74027°—Bull. 182—15——-1 
