230 TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY REPORT. 
82 varieties were tested including 15 selected from those grown the 
first year, and in the three years following fewer new varieties were 
tried each season. Most of the sorghums came from South Africa 
and different parts of India, a number came from China and some 
from the Malay peninsula, Java, Algiers and Turkey. 
All attempts to determine the yield of seed were finally abandoned 
owing to the nearly complete destruction on the small areas by Eng- 
lish sparrows. A majority of the varieties grown were good seed 
producers, and a few were heavy yielders of seed of excellent qual- 
ity, but not many were found to mature early enough for this lati- 
tude. : 
Records were made of the amount of juice capable of extraction 
from the canes by ordinary means, and of its composition so far as the 
percentages of cane sugar, glucose and total solids not sugar were 
concerned. Most of the best sugar producing varieties came from 
South Africa and a few from India. A few of the very best vari- 
eties were considered of too late maturity for safe planting in the 
greater part of the State. After the five years’ tests only six of the 
varieties were recommended as reliable syrup producers for this lati- 
tude. The most encouraging fact in the series of tests was that no 
mature cane of any of the better varieties was found at any time 
that failed to contain a good percentage of sugar, seldom less than 
12 per ct. of total sugars in the juice, and with the best, usually 
considerably more. 
In one season analyses were made of the juices of canes grown on 
a number of plats that had been differently fertilized for two years, 
but no general difference in composition was found that seemed due 
to effects of the several fertilizing materials used. 
In one season 12 varieties from strips in the field treated with car- 
bonate of lime carried an average of about 1o per ct. more sugar 
than the same varieties from untreated strips. But a more extended 
comparison the next season on alternate limed and unlimed plats 
gave almost identical average composition, and no differences in 
yield and maturity of crop appeared. 
THE COMPOSITION AND PRODUCTION OF SUGAR- 
BEETS+ 
From 1897 to 1901, an experimental study of sugar-beets was 
made. The work being carried on at the Station and also in other 
parts of the State. ; 
* Bulletins 135, 155 and 205. 
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