SUGAR FUOM SORGHUM. 279 



would have allowed it to have stood till Christmas if it would have 

 given me another ear, I plucked this corn and shelled it. It was 

 as good corn as was ever grown, so far as maturity was concerned. 

 1 had three varieties in 1879, and that furnished the seed for 1880 ; 

 it was perfectly ripe. When it was desirable to clear up the ground, 

 I assisted, myself, by cutting up the stalks, and the}' seemed so 

 juic}' and fresh I told the man he could throw a blanket over them 

 so the workmen would not cart them away, and we would work 

 them uj) for sugar the next da}-. And we did, and the result 

 was, that I obtained at the rate of nine hundred and seventy- pounds 

 of sugar to the acre from the stalks, and I grew sixty-nine and one- 

 tenth |,biishels of shelled corn to the acre on those stalks — perfectly 

 ripe corn. Now that is more than twice the average crop of corn 

 in the country, nearly three times, and yet the sugar that was 

 obtained from those stalks, and it was obtained by an inexpensive 

 process, was worth, as 3-ou see, more than twice what the grain 

 would be worth. Now, our corn crop occupies thirty-seven per 

 cent of our territory-, and for a hundred years we have been grow- 

 ing it for the grain mainly ; but it is perfectly clear, capable of 

 demonstration, that we have thrown away at least two-thirds the 

 value of this corn crop. This year, as I say, the rest of this crop of 

 corn — of the nine varieties, was ripened ; some of the lightest grow- 

 ing corn had dried up and was thrown out, but the coarser growing 

 corn was all taken, and I obtained this year at the rate of one 

 thousand pounds of sugar to the acre from stalks, approximately, 

 as you see, just repeating the experiment of the previous j^ear. 



Now, I do not sa}^ to any one, go to any great expense in fitting 

 up mills, etc. One swallow does not make a spring. But I did it 

 twice. I see no reason to doubt but that it may be done a dozen 

 times. I propose to follow the thing up. It is important that we 

 should do so. There is a gentleman down near Frederick, Mary- 

 land, who grew last year twenty-five hundred acres of corn and 

 canned it, — canned at the rate of seventj'-five acres a day, — I be- 

 lieve the largest canning establishment in the world. I have no 

 doubt it was possible to recover an amount of sugar from those 

 stocks, and they are practically refuse with them, greater in value 

 than the corn he canned. I am not prepared to say just how to go 

 to work to do it, but I believe it can be done ; these experiments 

 seem to indicate it. 



