REPORT OF THE CHEMIST. JJ17 



The history of the improvement in the sugar beet should be sufficient to encourage 

 all similar efforts with sorghum. 



The original forage beet, from which the sugar beet has been developed, contained 

 only 5 or 6 i)er cent, of sucrose. The sugar beet will now average 10 per cent, of 

 sucrose. It seems to me that a few years of careful selection may secure a similar 

 improvement in sorghum. 



It would be a long step toward the solution of the problem to secure a sorghum that 

 would average, field with field, 13 per cent, sucrose and only 3 per cent, of other 

 sugars, and with such cane the great difficulty would be to make sirup and not sugar. 

 Those varieties and individuals of each variety of cane which show the best an;ilyf i- 

 cal results should bQ carefully selected for seed, and this selection continued until 

 accidental variations become hereditary quaUties in harmony with the well-known 

 principles of descent. 



If these experiments in selection could be made in different parts of the country, 

 and especially by the various agricultural stations and colleges, they would have ad- 

 ditional value and force. In a country whose soil and climate are as diversified as 

 in this results obtained in one locaUty are not always reliable for another. 



If some unity of action could in this way be established among those engaged in 

 agricultural research., much time and labor would be saved and more valuable re- 

 sults be obtained. 



In Bulletin No. 5, pp. 185-187, are found the following conclusions: 



A careful study of the foregoing data will not fail to convince every candid in- 

 vestigator that the manufacture of sugar from sorghum has not yet proved finan- 

 cially successful. 



The men who have put their money in these enterprises seem likely to lose it, and 

 intending investors wiU carefully consider the facts herein set forth before making 

 final arrangements. The expectations of the earUer advocates of the industry have 

 not been met, and the predictions of enthusiastic prophets have not been verified. 

 It would be unwise and unjust to conceal the facts that the future of the sorghum- 

 sugar industry is somewhat doubtful. The unsatis'f actory condition is due to many 

 causes. In the first place, the difficulties inherent in the plant itself have been con- 

 stantly undervalued. The success of the industry has been based on the belief of the 

 production of sorghum with high percentages of sucrose and small amomit of re- 

 ducing sugar and other impurities. 



But the miiversal experience of practical manufacturers shows that the average 

 constitution of the sorghum cane is far inferior to that just indicated. Taking the 

 mean of several seasons as a sm-e basis of computation, it can now be said that the 

 juices of sorghum as they come from the mill do not contain over 10 per cent, of 

 sucrose, while the percentage of other soUds in solution is at least 4. 



It is needless to say to a practical sugar-maker that the working of such a juice is 

 one of extreme difficulty, and the output of sugar necessarily small. 



The working of sorghum juices will be found as diflScult as those of beets, and true 

 success cannot be hoped for until the processes used for the one are as complete and 

 scientific as for the other. It is not meant by this that the processes and machinery 

 are to be identical. 



The chemical as well as mechanical treatment of the two kinds of juice will doubt- 

 less differ in many respects. And this leads to the consideration of the third diffi- 

 culty, viz, the chemical treatment of sorghum juice. It has taken nearly three-quar- 

 ters of a century to develop the chemistry of the beet-sugar process, and even now 

 the progi-ess in this dhection is great. The chemistry of the sorghum-sugar process 

 is scarcely yet a science. It is only an imitation of what has been done in othei- 

 fields of work. Sorghum will have to develop a chemistry of its own. This will 

 not be the work of a day or a year, but it wQl be accomplished sooner or later. 



Careful study of climate and soU, joined with experience, wiU gradually locate 

 those areas most favorable to the growth of this plant and its manufacture. 



This is an all-important point in the problem, and is now occupying seriously the 

 attention of the thoughtful advocates of the sorghum-sugar industry. One thing is 

 already clear, i. e., that the area of successful sorghum culture is not nearly so ex- 

 tensive as it was thought to be a few years ago. I would urge a further investiga- 

 tion in this direction as a work peculiarly within the province of the Department, 

 and one which would prove of immense benefit to the country. Five milUon acres of 

 land, suitable to the purpose, will produce all the sugar required for this country for 

 several years to come. It is therefore certain that the sugar industry will be con- 

 fined to the most favorable localities. If a thorough, scientific study of aU the soil 

 and climatic conditions does not point out tliis region, bitter experience and the loss 

 of hundreds of milHons of dollars wHl gradually fix its boundaries. Last of aU, the 



