178 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



some ears were taken off, tlie stalks were examined, and they were 

 examined a week after they were taken off, and then what was left 

 of the ci'op was worked out for sugar. You will see here that we had 

 practically secured, in every case where we made the sugar test, a 

 good crop. No stalk was examined that had not borne a good ear. 

 Here we have the average results of nine kinds and twenty-six 

 analyses made, showing that there was in those juices eleven and 

 two-tenths per cent, of true sugar, and that seven and ninety-one 

 one-hundredths of the juice was available sugar. Now let us com- 

 pare that with some of the other results we have. I have here the 

 average of four analyses of sugar cane in Louisiana made b}' m}'- 

 self, four anal3-ses of sugar cane made by a chemist in New Orleans, 

 Prof. Saunders, and analyses of sugar cane, six in uuml)er, made in 

 India. You see there is an approximate agreement, showing that 

 the method I pursued must have been correct, and I have not a 

 shadow of doubt it was. This shows the approximate agreement 

 in the content of sugar and in the available sugar, also in the juice. 

 We received two years ago, sixty or more samples of sugar beets, 

 many of them from Maine, and one specimen from Idaho — from 

 different parts of the North and East mainly. The average of the 

 best fifteen of the sixty gave eleven and seventy-six one-hundredths 

 per cent, of sugar in the juice ; the second fifteen gave seven and 

 eighteen one-hundredths. These nine varieties of corn-stalks gave 

 eleven and twenty' one-hundredths ; that is, the corn stalks, weight 

 for weight, were nearly as valuable as the best quarter of the sugar 

 beets, and the^' were a great deal better than the best half of them. 

 If 30U grow beets 3'ou can by no means be sure 3'ou are going to 

 grow those that will come among the best quarter of those grown 

 in the country. But this was from practically- refuse material. I 

 know it is not refuse material with 30U, nor, to an}' great extent, in 

 New England. This sugar was only determined in the juice. You 

 say it was there, but you cannot get it. Last 3'ear, that is, 1879, I 

 made an experiment that I think has excited more interest than any 

 other connected with this matter of sugar. I have received, literally, 

 over fift}' letters from parties who supposed I must have blundered 

 when I spoke, or that there was some slip of the pen when I said, 

 '' the corn was ripe, after which the stalks were taken for making 

 sugar." In the fall of 1879, after having grown a crop for another 

 purpose entire!}', having in mind another experiment, and when my 

 whole object was to get the maximum yield of ripe corn, and I 



