ESTABLISHMENT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

"There shall be at the seat of Government a Department of Agriculture, the general design and duties of which shall be to acquire and to diffuse among the people of the United States useful information on subjects connected with agriculture, in the most general and comprehensive sense of that word, and to procure, propagate, and distribute among the people new and valuable seeds and plants"--Act May 15,1862.

From the very beginning of the investigations of sugar they were given by Congress to the Bureau of Chemistry, Department of Agriculture. Dr. MacMurtrie in the early 70's, first as an assistant and then as Chief of the Bureau, worked upon these problems and particularly carried on investigations looking to the establishment of the beet sugar industry. His successor, Dr. Collier, my immediate predecessor, made extensive investigations as to the possibility of using sorghum as the principal source of sugar.

When I was put in charge of the chemical work in 1883 it was with the distinct understanding that the sorghum investigations would be completed. To that end, in collaboration with A. A. Denton, the first study of the possibility of increasing the content of sugar and the percentage of purity in the sorghum plant was undertaken and continued for eight years. Varieties of sorghum were developed showing an average content of 4% increase in sugar. All of these investigations have been published in numerous bulletins of the Bureau of Chemistry. My successor, Dr. Alsberg, continued these investigations. His successor, Dr. C. A. Browne, has kept the work up. Thus from 1870 to 1927, a period of 57 years, Congress has continuously provided the funds for carrying on these investigations in the Bureau of Chemistry.

The appropriation for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1926, provided funds:

"To investigate the chemical composition of sugar and starch-producing plants in the United States and their possessions.

For the fiscal year ended June 30, 1928, the appropriation bill for the Department of Agriculture contains the following authorization:

"For the investigation and development of methods for the manufacture of table syrup and sugar by utilization of new agricultural sources."

If this means anything, it means that levulose is one of the new sources of sugar production, which Congress in its regular session committed to the new Bureau of Chemistry and Soils. Does not then this problem by right of possession and by a continued recognition by Congress for 57 years entitle the Bureau of Chemistry to carry on all investigations of this kind? By right of possession, as well as by ethical considerations. that rule ought not to be transgressed.

A careful survey of the original act establishing the Bureau of Standards fails even to give a hint that any investigations of this kind should be assigned to any other department than that of agriculture. The investigations which led to the establishment of the beet sugar industry were given exclusively to the Department of Agriculture, as the original act provided. There is one point, however, in which perhaps it is wise to permit the investigations of levulose through another department. The Bureau of Standards has proclaimed that when levulose under its initiative is made as cheaply, as dextrose, then there is no longer any reason for the existence of either the beet sugar or the cane sugar industries. Of course Congress never intended that the Department of Agriculture should be used for the destruction of established agricultural industries. So, naturally, investigations which would destroy these industries would not be germane to the fundamental idea around which the Department of Agriculture has been built. It does seem a little bit strange that Congress which is now bending all its energies to do something for the relief of the farmer should give to the Bureau of Standards a large sum of money for the purpose of endeavoring to destroy some of our most profitable agricultural industries.