statp: hokticultural society. 143 



season in the spring, togetlier with an early fall, shortened the 

 time for maturing the crop. We found we had very little cane 

 that was matured in the State; there was very little good syruj) 

 manufactured and no sugar made from it that I am aware of. 

 From these causes there was the past year a diminished area 

 planted, largely attributable to the uncertainty of the crop th<' 

 previous year. This will account in jiart for any dimunition 

 which may be apparent in the industry. The past year has been 

 a very good one, not only for this State but for the entire North- 

 west. I have seen specimens of cane that matnred in the northern 

 part of Dakota and along the line of the Northern Pacific Eailroad. 



At our University Experimental Farm I had forty-two varie- 

 ties of sorghum, about every variety that I could find growing 

 in this country or in Europe. And I want to say this, that there 

 was nothing among the different varieties that would surpass the 

 amber cane; I found nothing that was superior to it for growth 

 and maturity, or that was equal to it in saccharine development. 

 If we had two or three weeks more of growing season there are 

 two or three varieties that would perhaps give a larger quantity 

 to the acre; but out of the forty-two varieties there was not one 

 that would comj)are with the early amber of our State. 



I conducted a series of experiments with these different varie- 

 ties for the purpose of determining the earliest period at which 

 the crop could be cut profitably for manufacture. I commenced 

 the examination for sugar with the polirascope, and by the 

 ^'gravity method" as soon as the seed head appeared, and con- 

 tinued them from day to day until growth was stopped by frost. 

 The result of these tests only served to corroborate those of pre- 

 vious seasons, both in this State and elsewhere, and proved 

 conclusively that the development of sugar in all varieties of 

 sorghum keeps pace with the development of the seed, — com- 

 mencing when the seed first appears, and reaching its maximum 

 when fully matured, — and that the cane can be profitably cut and 

 worked for syrup as soon as it is in the ' ' milk, ' ' but for sugar 

 should not be cut until the seed has hardened or matured. 



I intended to have had specimens of these forty-two varie- 

 ties here but my absence at New Orleans has prevented. 



Now, in regard to what we have done at New Orleans. We 

 have on exhibition there about one ton of sugar and ten barrels 

 of syrup from Minnesota, of which the specimens on the table 

 here are fair samples. The most of this sugar was manufactured 

 by Mr. J. F. Porter, of Red Wing. You will remember that he 



