We suggest, therefore, that the Committee on Agriculture concern itself with appropriations for research in all fields of agriculture, and from time to time call upon the Department to give to the committee the results of its research, and an accounting of the funds so spent. Respectively submitted. W. K. GRANGER, Chairman. VICTOR WICKERSHAM. INVESTIGATION OF DISEASES AFFECTING SUGAR PRODUCTION MONDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1945 HOUSE OF REFRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE, Washington, D. C. The subcommittee met at 10 a. m., Hon. Walter K. Granger presiding. Mr. GRANGER. The committee will come to order. Perhaps an explanation will be in order at this time. During the discussion in the full committee on other matters the question was raised by some of the members with respect to the amount of research that was being done in the Agricultural Department and in the industry itself with respect to the production of sugar from sugar beets and sugarcane. As a result of that conversation a special committee was appointed by the chairman, myself as chairman of it, and all the other members of the committee who were interested in either one of these products, in accordance with the request of the chairman. The meeting here today is to discuss the subject, and I hope we can limit it to the field of research, because, as I understand it, the people here today from the Department are those who are engaged in research activities. While sugar as a whole is a very intriguing subject at this time, I hope we can confine our discussions to the problem, and it will be necessary that we get through as early as possible. I have asked the Department of Agriculture to bring a number of witnesses to give us some information, and Mr. Lambert, Assistant Director I think, is here, and we will be glad if you present the subject matter with the witnesses you would like to have appear. Mr. W. V. LAMBERT (Agricultural Research Administration). Mr. Chairman, I am going to ask two men here, Dr. Brandes, who is in charge of the Division of Sugar Investigation, and Mr. R. B. Gray, in charge of the Farm Machinery Research, to lead off and give you some of the details of what is now under way in research in the Department of Agriculture. As he is more familiar with the details of it, Dr. Brandes, do you want to lead off? Mr. GRANGER. We will be glad to hear you, Doctor. STATEMENT OF E. W. BRANDES, HEAD PATHOLOGIST IN CHARGE, DIVISION OF SUGAR PLANT INVESTIGATIONS, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Mr. BRANDES. Mr. Chairman, do I understand you to mean that you wish a general survey of the research being done on sugar plants? Mr. GRANGER. That is right. 79274-45-ser. f- -2 1 Mr. BRANDES. And on just sugar beets or sugar beets and cane? Mr. GRANGER. Sugarcane also. Some of the members of the committee wanted to know what was being done also in sugarcane, and we would like to hear about that, too. Mr. BRANDES. The work of the Division of Sugar Plant Investigations in the Bureau of Plant Industry, soils and agricultural engineering, is restricted to research on the problems of production, that is, the growing of the crops in the field. Other agencies of the Department of Agriculture conduct research on other phases of sugar. In our own Bureau, for example, the Division of Agricultural Engineering does work on the development and testing of machinery used in the production of the sugar-beet crop and the sugarcane crop. Mr. ANDRESEN. May I ask a question there? You do not go into the question of improving the quality, the sugar content of the beets, and to improve the production? That is handled by a different agency? Mr. BRANDES. No; that is one of our chief projects, the breeding for superior sugar beets and sugarcane. The problems that I referred to are the problems of plant improvement, including improvement in disease resistance, sugar content, production of beets or cane per acre, and all phases of the procedure in growing crops up to the moment that they go into the sugar-beet factory or the sugarcane mill. At that moment it is taken over by another agency of the Department— that is, the processing problem-namely, the Bureau of Agricultural and Industrial Chemistry. Mr. ANDRESEN. Does the industry itself or the different companies, do they have laboratories and engage in the same type of work that you are doing in the Department? Mr. BRANDES. They engage in research comparable to the research that we carry on, but mainly it is research on a regional basis, whereas our research is pretty largely limited to research that is applicable throughout the whole country. Many of the sugar-beet companies have their own research departments. Mr. ANDRESEN. Is there full cooperation between the sugar-beet companies and your research agency? Mr. BRANDES. Yes, sir; we cooperate directly with some of them, but not with all, and the sugar industry has recently established a sort of clearinghouse agency for the exchange of information between the Research Departments of the sugar-beet companies, the State experiment stations and the Federal Department of Agriculture. Mr. ANDRESEN. I suppose that applies to both sugarcane and sugar beets? Mr. BRANDES. That one is limited to sugar beets, and it is called the Beet Sugar Development Foundation of Fort Collins, Colo. That is a recent organization, and was created for the purpose of exchange of information on research. Mr. ANDRESEN. I didn't want to interrupt. I just wanted to bring out these facts as to what the industry itself is doing, and the cooperation between the industry and the Government in this research. Mr. BRANDES. There are other private agencies that carry on research on sugar. Another one which is fairly recent-it was organized just last year—is the Sugar Institute-I think I can give you its location-the Sugar Research Foundation, Inc., 99 Wall Street, New York. That has for its purpose the investigation of new uses of sugar, both as food and industrially, and it is supported by all of the sugar industries, including the refiners, the sugar-beet and sugarcane refiners, and it carries on its work by making grants of funds to various colleges and universities. They have a large laboratory of their own, but the principal work is done, the greatest part of the work, is done by means of allocation of money to various universities. In our own work, that is the work of the Division of Sugar Plant Investigation-roughly, we divide our activities Mr. GRANGER. How long has that Division been in existence? Mr. BRANDES. Since 1914. Work had been done by the Department of Agriculture for many years previous to that, but it was created as a separate division in 1914. The work has comprised attempts to improve the plant itself by breeding and selection, and that actually is the keystone of all of our work. It has been accomplished by utilizing our own resources of plants in this country; and by exchange of plants with similar agencies in foreign countries, and by independently conducted explorations to bring together the world's resources, from any source we can, of these sugar plants for breeding purposes. The necessity for that kind of work is not only the need to improve production by improving the plant in its yielding capacity, but also to maintain and preserve the sugar industry against diseases which periodically visit them. Some of them have proven to be extreordinarily serious. Both the sugar-beet industry and the sugarcane industry of this country faced practical ruination in the 1920's because of disease hazards. One of the important parts of our work in plant improvement has been to produce varieties of both sugar beets and sugarcane that are immune, or at least resistant, to diseases. As an illustration of the serious diseases of sugar beets, curly top resulted in the abandonment of a great many factories in the intermountain and Pacific coast areas, and it took some 10 years for our division to produce sugar beets that were sufficient resistent to curly top, which is a virus disease of beets transmitted by a small insect. At the present time much progress has been made, although we do not have even now completely immune varieties of sugar beets. There is still much room for improvement, and the project is still being continued-that is, the breeding for resistance to curly top. Mr. POAGE. May I ask you there, because I am very much interested in the whole situation, and I have heard so many different conflicting stories-I was told by a man who claimed to know a great deal about it that curly top was much worse in the East and South than it was in the mountain country. Now, you have just told us that is particularly infested the mountainous region. What seems to be the controlling factor of the disease, other than breeding resistant varieties? Mr. BRANDES. Well, I believe your informant was not very qualified as an expert, because curly top does not exist in the eastern part of the country at all. The insect that transmits the virus does not live in the humid part of the country. It is an insect of the arid West, and therefore, that is a limiting factor, confining curly top to the irrigated sections of the country. There are a number of diseases in the eastern sections. One of them which has caused severe losses in the past is a fungus disease which causes a leaf spot, and that is the common name of the disease. It is called simply leaf spot. It is a fungus technically known as Cercospora beticola. That disease results in defoliation of the plants |