SORGfiUM AS A SUGAR PRODUCING PLANT. 417 



than by presenting a resume of the progress which has been made in this 

 important study. 



I will not insist here on the immense advantages which would accrue to 

 American agriculture by the development of an indigenous sugar industry. 

 There is no true friend of our farming interests who does not wish our sugar 

 to be produced at home, and if sorghum can help to the consummation of 

 such a wish, we ought to know it. Unfortunately human desires, even 

 when benevolent, are not always attainable, and in spite of the most earnest 

 endeavors, both on the part of private citizens and the Department of Agri- 

 culture, we are still compelled to submit to seeing our sugar obtained by 

 importation. I gave a full discussion of these aspects of the sorghum ques- 

 tion in my presidential address before the Washington Chemical Society, 

 which has been published in its proceedings. Bulletin No. 2. 



In order to learn as nearly as possible, the exact composition of the 

 sorghum juices which have been produced in this country, during the last 

 thirty years, I have examined all the chemical data accessible. These data I 

 have divided into two parts. 



In the first I have collected together the means of all the analyses made by 

 the Department of Agriculture, and in the second part, the same thus derived 

 from other sources. The number of analyses represented in these data is 

 enormous, amounting to many thousands. 



Having collected the means of all the analyses made by the Department of 

 Agriculture, I found the following to be the average composition of the 

 juice. These analyses extend from 1862 up to the present year, but most of 

 them have been made since 1878: 



AVERAGE OF THE MEANS OF THE JUICES OF SORGHUM CANE MADE BY THE 



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Sucrose 11.34 per cent. 



Glucose 2.80 " 



Total solids 17.37 



In like manner the average of the means of the analyses of sorghum 

 juices, made without the Department, is as follows: 



Sucrose 10.00 per cent. 



Glucose J 3.83 



Total solids 15.99 





The above two sets of averages have been based solely upon experimental 

 work; that is, they were made on small samples of sorghum, and, therefore, 

 do not represent large crops. 



Following are the names of the analysts upon whose authority the above 

 rest: Wetherill, Erni, Antisell, Collier, Wiley, Browns, Jackson, Smith, 

 Goessmann, Lovering, Leplay, Hilgard, Weber & Scovell, Weber, Henry & 

 Swenson, l^irotta, Monselise, Zanelli & Spallanzaiii, Armsby, Swenson, 

 Scovell, Failyer, Stewart, Henry, Neale, Stubbs, Wilcox, Cook & Neale. 



I have also collected the analyses made at large factories, where sorghum 



sugar has been made on a manufacturing scale. These analyses were made 



at Washington, D. C. ; Champaign, 111. ; Sterling, Hutchinson, Ottawa and 



Fort Scott, Kans. ; Helena, Wis., and Rio Grande, N. J. The results of 



53 



