1883. 5 : Trans. N.Y. Ac. Sci. 
property and loss of life ; but we have no reason to suppose they are 
more frequent now than formerly, and they are liable to occur in all parts 
of the United States. If the early settlers of the forest-clad region 
had made notes of the windfalls they had observed, we should have a 
more interesting meteorological record, and one which would add 
much to our knowledge of the distribution of these fearful phenomena. 
October 15, 1883. 
SECTION OF GEOLOGY. 
The President, Dr. J. S.:. NEWBERRY, in the Chair. 
Thirty-four persons present. 
Prof. O. P. Hupparp stated that he was one of a large party of 
business men, chemical experts, and the Chinese Legation at 
Washington—invited on the roth inst., by the Rio Grande Sugar 
Company, to visit their plantation and refinery, situated about 
five miles north of Cape May, N. J. 
The region is of a light sandy soil, of which there is an immense 
area in East New Jersey and the sea coast of Delaware and 
Maryland. The plantation contains 3,000 acres, and 73 were in 
crop of the Early Orange and Amber varieties of Sorghum, which, 
notwithstanding a long drought, seemed well developed and ma- 
tured. All the processes of the manufacture, with improved ma- 
chinery, were in active operation—from the entering of the cane 
to the rollers, defecation of the juice, and boiling the syrup in 
open and vacuum pans, to the crystallization and separation of the 
sugar by the centrifugal process into a yellow and a white variety, 
ready for market. The State of New Jersey wisely aids this im- 
portant industry by a bounty of $1.00 a ton on Sorghum thus 
raised, and one cent a pound on all sugar manufactured from it. 
Prof. Hupsarp exhibited several heads of the seed of the Early 
Orange and Amber varieties of Sorghum, and specimens of crystal- 
lized white and yellow cane sugar, manufactured from the plants 
raised by this Company. 
Mr. A. H. Exxiotr referred to the mode of development of 
the beet sugar industry in Europe. In England, the product of 
sugar, obtained from the sugar-beet, had been raised to seventeen 
or eighteen per cent. Half of the sugar of the world is now de- 
rived from this source, and the earlier stages of its introduction 
