FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1935.

BUREAU OF CHEMISTRY AND SOILS

STATEMENTS OF DR. HENRY G. KNIGHT, CHIEF; DR. C. A. BROWNE, CHIEF, CHEMICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL RESEARCH; DR. W. W. SKINNER, ASSISTANT CHIEF, CHEMICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL RESEARCH; DR. A. G. McCALL, CHIEF, SOIL INVESTIGATIONS; DR. CHARLES E. KELLOGG, ACTING CHIEF, DIVISION OF SOIL SURVEY; AND DR. C. H. KUNSMAN, ACTING CHIEF, FERTILIZER INVESTIGATIONS

Mr. SANDLIN. Dr. Knight, we will take up the estimates for the Bureau of Chemistry and Soils. I believe you have a general statement you wish to file.

Dr. KNIGHT. Mr. Chairman, the last couple of years I have submitted a general preliminary statement to the committee, and I have prepared a statement of that kind this year.

Mr. SANDLIN. We will be very glad to have it.

Dr. KNIGHT. It is a running story which I think would be helpful to the committee.

GENERAL STATEMENT OF WORK OF THE BUREAU

The practical and scientific value of the activities of the Bureau of Chemistry and Soils has been emphasized during the past fiscal year by important contributions which the Bureau has made to the recovery program when called upon to aid and supplement the work of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the Federal Surplus Relief Corporation, the Public Works Administration, the National Resources Board, the Subsistence Homesteads Division, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and other emergency and relief agencies of the Government.

Probably the most striking development of the past fiscal year has been the demand made upon the Bureau for aid to the various emergency and relief activities of the Government.

CHEMICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL RESEARCH

UTILIZATION OF CROP SURPLUSES, CULLS AND WASTES

A very important line of research is the devising of means for more profitable utilization of surplus, cull, and off-grade fruits and vegetables, together with farm residues such as straw, stalks, hulls, and other so-called "agricultural wastes." The complete and efficient utilization of all that is produced on controlled acreage, so as to afford the farmer a maximum return for his crops, is highly essential in order to complete the scheme of properly adjusted production and consumption.

Profitable by-products utilization of surplus, cull, and off-grade fruits and vegetables serves to support the market grades and makes it possible to obtain a greater degree of flexibility in marketing. Thus, in years of relatively large production more of any given crop may be diverted into byproducts, whereas in periods of underproduction it will be profitable to sell a greater proportion through the usual market channels.

Such byproducts industries serve also as a balance wheel to control market supplies. This principle is well illustrated by the domestic citrus byproducts industry which was developed as a result of research by this Bureau and is now one of the world's largest producers of lemon oil, orange oil, citric acid and citrus pectin. More profitable means of utilizing surplus, cull, and off-grade fruits and vegetables, and farm wastes of various types is particularly important because the cost of producing such material has already been incurred, and increase in income derived by the farmer from more effective utilization is clear profit.

A more recent development in this field is the devising of a process for profitable production of high-grade starch from cull sweetpotatoes which constitute a large proportion of the field-run crop and which have heretofore been very poorly and inefficiently utilized. Directly, as a result of the research work of this Bureau, a commercial sweetpotato-starch industry is now being developed. In addition the Federal Emergency Relief Administration has made available to the Mississippi Emergency Relief Administration $172,000 for the construction and operation of a sweetpotato-starch factory at Laurel, Miss. This project is being directed by a technologist of the Bureau in association with the Subsistence Homesteads Division, under a cooperative arrangement with the Mississippi Emergency Relief Administration and the Mississippi State College of Agriculture. If this project proves to be successful it is proposed to erect other relatively small starch plants, of about 2 million pounds annually capacity, at strategic points in the important areas of sweetpotato production in order to reduce the costs of transportation from field to factory. The prospective market for sweetpotato starch will absorb the output of about 25 factories of this size, making possible the employment of about 6,500 heads of families. The sweetpotato starch so produced has superior qualities for many industrial purposes. It is not competitive with cornstarch but will be used to replace imported potato starch.

The work of the Bureau in developing a method for the production of high-grade cellulose for rayon from sugarcane bagasse has been followed by the construction of a small-scale plant by one of the sugar companies in the Hawaiian Islands. The successful completion of this project will point the way for the utilization, in the production of rayon, nitrocellulose, and other similar industrial materials, of a large part of the 500,000 tons of bagasse produced annually in the continental United States. Up to the present time, the cellulose industries have used cotton linters as their principal basic raw material, but the shortage of the latter, due to the limitation of the cotton crop, must force them to look elsewhere. No other domestic source of cellulose offers more promise than sugarcane bagasse.

The Bureau's work upon the utilization of unmarketable fruits is well exemplified by the experiments which are now being conducted upon the manufacture of a palatable juice from cull and surplus oranges in its laboratory at Winter Haven, Fla. The annual production of oranges in Florida is about 16,000,000 boxes, of which about 5 percent is cull and surplus fruit. Commercial attempts to manufacture a satisfactory beverage from unmarketable fruit have not succeeded because of the inability to make a product that would hold the normal color, flavor, and aroma of fresh orange juice during the

interval of 6 to 9 months between one growing season and the next. The Bureau has developed a process of deaeration and flash pasteurization which overcomes most of these difficulties and a canned orange juice has thus been produced that meets most of the requirements of the trade.

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This process, or a modification thereof, is now being applied upon a large commercial scale.

AGRICULTURAL BY-PRODUCTS LABORATORY

For the purpose of developing better methods for utilizing the waste materials from farm crops, an allotment of $70,000 was made to the Bureau from Public Works Administration funds for the erection of an agricultural by-products laboratory at Ames, Iowa. More than 260,000,000 tons of straw and stalks go to waste annually on American farms. The United States uses more than 11,000,000 tons of paper and paper board annually and imports the raw materials, or the finished paper and paper board, for more than half of this amount. The experimental by-products plant, just constructed at Ames, will be directed by a technologist of the Bureau, in collaboration with the Iowa State College of Agriculture, and will make it possible to investigate on an adequate scale the utilization of farm wastes for the manufacture of paper, fiber board, and other valuable by-products. These investigations will help to provide a market not now existing for a part of the country's enormous supply of crop residues and at the same time furnish labor to a large number of employees.

DIVERSIFIED USES FOR NEW FARM CROPS

Other work of a chemical and technological research nature is resulting in new uses for existing crops and in the introduction of new crops to provide products for which uses have been found recently. Thus, means have been devised for greater utilization of chicory, which is now a minor crop. Work of this kind is in the interest of greater crop diversification and makes possible increasing flexibility in Agricultural Adjustment measures.

The production of soybeans in the United States has increased from 5,190,000 bushels in 1924-25 to 15,463,000 bushels in 1931-32. The increasing production of this crop and its growing importance as an agricultural commodity have led to a thorough study by the Bureau of the chemical composition of many varieties of soybeans from different countries of the Orient with reference to their suitability for the manufacture of oil, feeding stuffs, flour, and other products in the United States. The investigation is being continued for the purpose of finding those varieties which yield the best oils for industrial and household use and furnish the best quality of protein for animal rations and the human diet. The utilization of soybean flour in baking has also been investigated and the results indicate a great improvement in the nutritive value of the products to which this constituent has been added, without in any way detracting from their appearance or flavor.

ADAPTING FARM PRODUCTS TO MARKET REQUIREMENTS

Farm income from certain crops can be increased in some cases by better adaptation to market requirements and preferences, particularly in the case of derived products which do not bring the highest

market price because of inadequate quality and which thus react against the value of the primary commodity.

An illustration of the value of work of this type is the recent improvement in the quality of farm-made sorgo and sugarcane sirups. During recent years there has been a spread of as much as 300 percent in farm price between high- and low-grade sirups, depending on quality. High-grade sirup can be sold direct to the final consumer at maximum price, whereas low-grade sirup is usually sold under distress conditions at an unremunerative price.

TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE IN HANDLING FARM PRODUCTS

The Bureau has supplied technical and expert aid to the Agricultural Ajdustment Administration, the Federal Surplus Relief Corporation, and the Federal Emergency Relief Administration in the handling and storing of hides and skins accumulated from the cattlekilling program of the Government. This work has also included technical advice in the drafting of working procedurs, schedules, and contracts for relief employment in tanneries and for the tanning of leather for relief distribution. While the extent of the Government cattle-killing program is as yet undetermined, the value of the hides and skins so far involved may be conservatively estimated as between $10,000,000 and $20,000,000.

The Bureau has also given assistance to the Agricultural Adjustment Administration in helping to formulate marketing agreements for the naval stores industry and in delegating specialists to cooperate in matters pertaining to the production of raw and refined sugar.

PROTECTING LIVES AND PROPERTY

Twenty-four dust explosions were investigated by the chemical engineering staff of the Bureau during the fiscal year 1933-34. These disasters resulted in the death of 20 persons, injuries to 49 others, and a property damage of $1,307,100. Since the repeal of prohibition there has been a growing activity in the handling of grain in malt houses, breweries, and distilleries with a consequent increase in the dust explosion hazards of these industries. A dust explosion in a malt house at Buffalo, N. Y., January 24, 1934, caused the death of a fire captain and injuries to 14 fireman. A large grain elevator at Newport News, Va., and another at Omaha, Nebr., were destroyed in November 1934, with a loss of 8 lives and a property damage of over $2,000,000.

The Bureau's resources have not permitted the extension of this explosion-preventing work to country grain elevators of which there are 25,000 in the United States. The destruction last April of a country grain elevator at Amarillo, Tex., by a dust explosion during the transfer of wheat, shows that the hazard exists in these smaller grain-handling plants as well as in the larger establishments. By means of demonstrations in the use of inert gas, venting areas and other safety devices before officials of various industries at its Arlington testing station; by means of lectures before firemen's schools and other organizations; and by means of close cooperation with insurance companies and fire prevention agencies the Bureau has succeeded in effecting a wide introduction of its protective measures and thus has greatly reduced the dust explosion hazard in many industries. Sta

tistics show that where the Bureau's codes for dust explosion prevention have been adopted the losses of life and property in grain elevators, feed mills, and other establishments, where agricultural products are handled, are greatly reduced.

Another economic loss to American agriculture of even greater magnitude than that of dust explosions is the $260,000,000 annual toll from fires upon farms and in rural communities. The "fire tax" resulting from damage by farm fires amounts annually to an average of $16 per farm for the entire United States. The Bureau as a result of its investigation of the losses by farm fires from spontaneous combustion, defective heating equipment, faulty electric wiring, careless handling of gasoline, negligence in smoking and other causes, has issued numerous publications which show how these losses can be prevented. The Bureau's safety codes for fire prevention have been adopted by insurance companies and other protection agencies and statistics show that the observance of these regulations by farmers has not only brought about a lowering of insurance rates but has also effected a great reduction in the losses of life and property. Lectures by members of the Bureau's staff before firemen's schools, 4-H clubs and other organizations have also had a beneficial effect in diminishing the hazards from farm fires. Unfortunately the Bureau has available for this work an annual appropriation of only $13,000 which is equivalent to an expenditure of only $36 per day to combat a daily loss from fires in the entire country of over three quarters of a million dollars.

REDUCING FOOD LOSSES

The losses to the food industries of the Nation as a result of decay, fermentation, rancidity, staling, discoloration, and other deterioration changes amount to several hundred million dollars annually. Work has been directed by the Bureau to the study of methods for reducing these losses which are due to the action of micro-organisms, enzymes, oxidation, light, heat, and other causes. This work is of particular value under present conditions because of the decrease in some food supplies as a result of the drought.

NAVAL STORES RESEARCH LABORATORY

For the purpose of providing needed facilities for the conduct of experimental work on the development and introduction of new and better methods of producing turpentine and rosin, to eliminate waste, make better and more useful products, and increase returns to naval stores producers (which work is provided for in the regular appropriations of the Bureau), an allotment of $21,000 was made from P. W. A. funds for the construction of a fireproof chemical laboratory and office building at the naval stores station, Olustee, Fla. The research work of this station upon dipping equipment; gum cleaning; steam distillation, dehydration and storage of turpentine; and straining and storage of rosin, has been of the greatest practical value to the naval stores industry of the South.

SOIL INVESTIGATIONS

The importance of soil survey reports and maps in any scheme of agricultural control is self-apparent. No intelligent action with respect to use of land, the basis of agricultural production, can be