PRELIMINARY REPORT ON SUGAR PRODUCTION FROM 



MAIZE. 1 



By C. F. Clark, Assistant Agronomist, Office of Cotton and Truck Disease and Sugar- 

 Plant Investigations. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The experiments described in the following pages were conducted 

 under the direction of Mr. W. A. Orton, of the Bureau of Plant 

 Industry, in cooperation with the Sugar Laboratory of the Bureau of 

 Chemistry. The work was carried on during the summer of 1912 at 

 Garden City, Kans., and Washington, D. C. At Garden City the 

 field work was in charge of the writer and the analytical work under 

 the direction of Mr. W. B. Clark, assisted by Messrs. R. J. Hamon 

 and C. A. Hauser. At Washington the experimental plats, which 

 were located on the Arlington Farm, were under the supervision of 

 Mr. J. I. Milstead, of the Office of Horticultural Investigations, while 

 the analytical work was performed under the direction of JVIr. A. Hugh 

 Bryan, of the Bureau of Chemistry. These preliminary studies have 

 been carried out with only two varieties of corn. Other varieties 

 might give more or less favorable results. It is well known that the 

 maize plant responds to selection for specific purposes, and it is 

 possible that results achieved in the selection of the beet to increase 

 its sugar content might be paralleled with the proper selection of 

 maize. 



EXPERIMENTS AT GARDEN CITY. 



The variety used was Stowell's Evergreen sweet corn. It was 

 planted on May 15 and the ears were removed on August 9, when in 

 the milk stage. For comparison alternate rows were left with the 

 ears on. These stalks were analyzed at the same time as those from 

 which the ears had been removed. 



Analyses were made at frequent intervals extending from August 28 

 to September 25. The samples, which consisted of 10 stalks each, 

 with the exception of the one analyzed September 7 which contained 

 30 stalks, were taken on the day in which the analyses were made. 

 As soon as cut the stalks were taken to the laboratory and the juice 

 extracted by running twice through a 3-roller mill. The solids were 

 determined by the Brix spindle and the apparent sucrose by direct 

 polarization, from which data the apparent purity was calculated. 

 The results are given in Table I. 



i Issued Feb. 1, 1913. 

 [Cir. Ill] 3 



