(Witnesses: Wiley, Zappone.)

The CHAIRMAN. That is because those lines are treated in one book? Doctor WILEY. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. That, of course, would cause duplication where those particular lines were being investigated.

Doctor WILEY. In regard to periodical literature, it is passed around from one bureau to another and finally deposited in the bureau which is most interested in it.

The CHAIRMAN. How many volumes have you in your Bureau? Doctor WILEY. I can not answer that, but I should say that we have at least 1,000.

The CHAIRMAN. Is your library clerk employed altogether in taking care of that particular branch of the library?

Doctor WILEY. Yes; and looking up references, especially for the use of the chief of the Bureau, who has to refer to these things constantly.

The CHAIRMAN. Does that occupy full time?

Doctor WILEY. Yes, sir; and very strenuously, too.

The CHAIRMAN. Engineer-for what purpose do you have an engineer?

Doctor WILEY. The engineer is in charge of our engines and machinery. We have a great deal of machinery in connection with our chemical work-grinding machines, shredding machines, presses, and whatever is mechanically necessary in our laboratory work. The engineer has charge of the engines and boilers, this machinery, and of the plumbing, which goes all over the house. Our plumbing is not chiefly for heating, but mostly chemical work. Each desk must have a supply of hot water and cold water and steam and gas.

The CHAIRMAN. That is in order to do experimental work? Doctor WILEY. To have a working table useful for the men. Our Bureau is really a mechanical workshop as well as chemical, and the services of an engineer are absolutely necessary.

The CHAIRMAN. Is your Bureau housed in one building?

Doctor WILEY. No, sir; unfortunately.

The CHAIRMAN. Are there any other bureaus that are housed with yourself?

Doctor WILEY. No, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. That is, so far as your Bureau occupies buildings it occupies the whole of them?

Doctor WILEY. The whole of them; yes, sir.

Mr. ZAPPONE. They are rented quarters; they are removed from the main Department.

The CHAIRMAN. Would it result in pronounced economy if you could get them all together?

Doctor WILEY. It would.

The CHAIRMAN. That is contemplated in the building now being constructed for the Department of Agriculture, is it not?

Doctor WILEY. I believe it was, but the Department has grown so since those plans were made that it will not begin to take care of the scientific work of the Department as at present.

The CHAIRMAN. I mean the projected building.

Doctor WILEY. Oh, yes; the projected buildings will. I was referring to the ones in actual construction. We have, Mr. Chairman, a small building adjoining ours immediately to the south, that we

(Witnesses: Wiley, Zappone.)

rent-two buildings for $12.50 apiece. We use them largely for storage houses and things of that kind. Then we have offices and laboratories in the different ports-in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. Those buildings belong, generally, to the Government. We are in the Government buildings in Chicago and in New Orleans. In San Francisco our laboratory was burned. We had a rented building, as we could not get into the Government building, and we now have leased another building since the first of the year, and that is the only other leased building that we have outside of Washington.

The CHAIRMAN. How does your salary happen to be $3,490.25? Doctor WILEY. I took one day's leave of absence without pay last

year.

The CHAIRMAN. And they docked you, or got you to dock yourself? Doctor WILEY. I applied for it. I was wanted on a case involving the purity of food products, but not connected with the Department, to give expert testimony in New York, and I went to the Secretary and told him that I wanted to do that. I got $100 for my fee, so took that leave of absence without pay during the day I was there. That is the way it happened.

The CHAIRMAN. Your salary is really $3,500?

Doctor WILEY. Yes, sir.

Mr. ZAPPONE. Doctor Wiley came to me about it, and I suggested that he take a day's leave, without pay, to avoid any possible criticism in the future. It would have been perfectly legitimate under the law, but there was danger of criticism.

The CHAIRMAN. Then it was out of abundant caution?

Mr. ZAPPONE. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Why is it necessary for your bureau to conduct its experimental work outside of Washington? In other words, why can not you do all your experimental and chemical analyzing work here in Washington under one head, without having to go outside with such a relatively large amount of expense?

Doctor WILEY. I can answer that in a few words. The chemical work in its relation to agriculture involves a good deal besides mere analysis. It means its application. You do not get the analyzing in any chemical work for agriculture until it is applied practically. From the beginning of our bureau, long before I came into it, and since then, this practical application of chemical investigation has been made, and it must be made at the places where the agriculture interested is; for instance, we conducted years ago a very extensive series of experiments in trying to develop sorghum sugar in this country; so we had to go to places where sorghum was grown for that purpose. We instituted the investigation also which led to the establishment of beet sugar in this country, and so we had to have laboratory facilities at places where beets were grown.

The CHAIRMAN. Why does not that come under the Bureau of Plant Industry?

Doctor WILEY. Because these principles underlying the industry are chemical in their character.

The CHAIRMAN. Is not that feasible for the Bureau of Plant Industry while they are investigating the other general features, as,

23848-07- -28

(Witness: Wiley.)

for instance, the production of sorghum and sugar beets? Doctor Galloway went very extensively over the question of sugar beets and the introduction and method of culture.

Doctor WILEY. The Bureau of Chemistry did all that work-every bit of it; no one else in the Department ever did anything toward it until it was fully established. Then, after it came to a simple question of growing them, they went on; but we did all the preliminary work.

The CHAIRMAN. So that there was no duplication?

Doctor WILEY. No.

The CHAIRMAN. Are we to understand that in order to get the necessary accurate scientific results, in your judgment, it is necessary to have the experiments made on the ground where the sorghum and the sugar beet are grown?

Doctor WILEY. Undoubtedly; we can not do it otherwise.

The CHAIRMAN. Would it deteriorate in quality if sent from there to Washington for analysis and examination?

Doctor WILEY. It would change somewhat, but that is not the important thing. The beet-sugar industry is purely a chemical science. It was developed by chemistry and is sustained by chemistry. In its inception the beet had only 5 per cent of sugar. Every effort to develop the sugar in the beet devolved upon chemistry. Botany helped, to be sure, but the chief work was done by the chemist, and always has been and always will be.

When I came into the Bureau twenty-four years ago the sorghumsugar industry was under full investigation by my predecessor, but he had done nothing but technical work. My first impression was that if the sorghum industry was to be successful it must be done by the development of sugar in the cane. First, we must know how much is in the cane, and how you can devise methods to increase it, and how can you tell when it is increased.

The CHAIRMAN. Was the cane under cultivation?

Doctor WILEY. Under chemical control. Chemistry is the dominating principle. We undertook for eight years experiments in increasing the content of sugar. We made 125,000 analyses during those eight years, and we employed men to grow cane for us. annual saving to the public resulting from the investigation of sorghum sirup is estimated at $1,000,000.

The

The CHAIRMAN. Was that a microscopic investigation, microscopic and minute?

Doctor WILEY. It was accurate work, but not all with the microscope.

The CHAIRMAN. In your judgment that character of detail was necessary?

Doctor WILEY. Absolutely necessary.

The CHAIRMAN. How did you produce the ultimate results; in what way were these examinations useful and valuable?

Doctor WILEY. Two methods, one being the cross-fertilization method and the other the analytical method. Of course we could not know what we had done unless we examined the product, so we attempted both methods. We employed an expert. After that eight years of work we developed four different new varieties of sorghum, which are the dominating varieties, and with an increasing content of

(Witness: Wiley.)

sugar from 9 per cent to 12 per cent in eight years; and every step depended upon the chemical work that was done.

The CHAIRMAN. How was that utilized in connection with the development, was it in the selection of the fertilizer or in the soil?

Doctor WILEY. It was in the cross pollination of plants which we found to be rich in sugar, selecting from these fields the individuals with high content of sugar, and propagating those seed next year, so that we got a pedigree for our sorghum, just as you have for horses. Every variety had a pedigree of considerable length, and every one depended upon a chemical analysis to develop it. And the sugar beet has been made what it is to-day by the chemist. If you strike chemistry from the industry in sugar beets, in twenty-five years from now it would go back to its original condition.

The CHAIRMAN. That would be a matter of deterioration?
Doctor WILEY. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. In other words, do you have to keep this process of selection going on all the while?

Doctor WILEY. That is done chemically now. We do not have to do it any longer.

The CHAIRMAN. Have you so developed the science that that can be done successfully?

Doctor WILEY. It is done chemically. There is not a beet-sugar factory in the world that does not have its chemist to control the work to-day. I did all the work in the analysis of sugar beets that was done in the Department of Agriculture from the earliest times up to 1904, and we started the first sugar-beet station in Nebraska and developed the seeds there.

The CHAIRMAN. What was the sugar content of the beet when you began?

Doctor WILEY. When I began it was pretty near what it is now, because it had been developed in Europe, although it never had been developed in this country. My work was to find out over what areas you could grow the sugar beet; it was a climatic study dependent upon chemistry. I made thousands of analyses of sugar beets grown all over the country, and finally located the regions and published a map that was twelve or fifteen years ago-indicating in this country where it was possible to grow the sugar beet. Every beet-sugar factory to-day in this country is in that belt, every one of them. They use it as a guide to-day for locating their fields. The annual saving resulting from the investigation of the sugar beet and the thousands of analyses made is estimated at $1,000,000.

The CHAIRMAN. My impression was that the content of sugar in the sugar beet had been increased largely in this country in the last ten or fifteen years.

Doctor WILEY. There never has been any systematic work in connection with the sugar-beet content until within the last few years excepting in the Bureau of Chemistry. We have tried to protect the beet from the debasing influence of our climate. Our climate is not as favorable as Europe. Hot days destroy the sugar beet. The CHAIRMAN. What is the most favorable climate?

Doctor WILEY. Where the average temperature for the three growing months-June, July, and August-does not rise above 70° Fahrenheit.

(Witness: Wiley.)

The CHAIRMAN. How is it in New England?

Doctor WILEY. New England would grow the best sugar beets in the world if you could get time for them to mature. The farther north you grow the sugar beet the better they are if you can mature them.

The CHAIRMAN. How long does it take?

Doctor WILEY. Four months.

The CHAIRMAN. From the time of planting?
Doctor WILEY. Between frosts.

The CHAIRMAN. Wherever you get the high latitude consistent with the time of development

Doctor WILEY. Then you get the richer beets. Now, I will give you an illustration. Six years ago company was formed down at Richmond to build a $500,000 beet-sugar factory on the James River. They asked me to come down there and make a speech, and I told them I would do so, but I also said: "I will tell every man there not to invest a dollar in that factory." They said that that would be a peculiar speech to make, and I said: "That is the kind to make, because every dollar you put in a sugar-beet factory on the James River is lost money." I took the map, based upon the analyses I had made, and showed it to these men, indicating the territory where sugar beets could be raised; and after I had explained it to them they said that they were perfectly convinced, that they would not put a dollar into it. Every investor to-day that picks out a field for sugar beets goes back to the work done by this Bureau when it was a division and had but $15,000 or $20,000 a year income to support it. That shows you how necessary it is to follow chemical investigations, and that is the reason we set up those little stations outside. Down in Georgia they told me that they were making a table sirup that contained sulphur and chemicals. I said that if Congress would give me $2,000 or $3,000 I would show them how to keep the sulphur out. That was done; we went down there, and we made in three years 12,000 gallons of the best table sirup ever made, and from sugar cane grown in Georgia. The investigation of the methods of making pure sirup have greatly increased the industry in Georgia and other States. The estimated annual value is $100,000.

The CHAIRMAN. Was it their idea that they did not have sufficient sugar content to produce it?

Doctor WILEY. They thought that they could not make the sirup without dosing it with sulphur, lime, phosphoric acid, and all those things.

Now, let me give you another illustration in connection with the denatured-alcohol bill. There was a great inquiry from all our farmers in regard to that. You have no idea how the agricultural population of this country was excited over that question. I said to the Secretary, "We must give information in regard to this subject, and we can not write all the letters. I want to write a farmers' bulletin that will tell them the truth about it as it relates to the farmer." When I got the bulletin written it was so big that it could not be published in one book, under the law, so they made two of it. One was in relation to the origin of denatured alcohol and the other the manufacture of it, and it made two very interesting and useful