174 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



of sorghum, I obtained 4000 pounds, or at that rate. There has 

 been obtained more than 2| tons of sugar to the acre on some farm- 

 ing soils. I have here a few samples of the sugar, to which I will 

 call your attention, that compare favorably with the best Muscava- 

 does that we import. Two of them are made from sorghum, and 

 one from corn stalks. This last j-ear examinations were made of 

 thirty-eight varieties of sorghum, ostensibly such. There were, 

 undoubtedly, about thirtj' of them that were distinct varieties. The 

 seed was received from fourteen different States. The\- were all 

 planted side b})- side, and the examinations were conducted with 

 these thirty-eight preciseh' in the manner indicated with the four of 

 the vear before. The result is that each of these thirty-eight vari- 

 eties of sorghum were shown to be approximately as valuable as the 

 best sugar cane in Louisiana. The sugar was not taken from but 

 four of them, simph' because the mill I had used in my experiments 

 the 3'ear before had been leased to a gentleman in Virginia, and I 

 did not have opportunity to again obtain the sugar as I did the 3'ear 

 before, but its presence was determined in the same way, and in the 

 same quantity as the year before, and there is not one shadow of 

 doubt but that it might have been exti-acted. I would call your 

 attention to this chart where these results are depicted. I wish to 

 call attention to the enormous amount of data we have here. These 

 facts that I am presenting are the results of an amount of work that 

 is almost incredible. There were made over thirty-six hundred 

 separate analj'ses of stalks, and each lot of stalks had its weight 

 determined, the percentage of juice, the specific gravity of the juice, 

 the per cent, of the total solids in the juice, of the sucrose and 

 glucose in the juice, and upon this chart are embodied the average 

 results of the thirtj'-six hundred, excluding none. Now it is simply 

 incredible that these figures can be incorrect to the extent of a 

 hundreth of one per cent. An^'^ one analysis ma}- have erred pos- 

 sibh' one-half per cent, though I doubt it ; but the number of 

 anal3'ses is so great, one slight error correcting another, that the 

 general result is unquestionabl}- true to the hundredth of one per 

 cent. What are the results ? Here I have a chart similar to that 

 depicted but more data embodied. This line represents the devel- 

 opment of the juice, and along here instead of a calendar of dates 

 as on the other, I have the stages rather arbitraril}- assumed for the 

 plant. This first stage means when the flower was just bursting 

 from the upper blades of the stalk ; the second stage when it had 



