{04 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 
for future determination, if means shall be provided to carry the experi- 
ments thus far made to a satisfactory conclusion. 
It is also to be observed of the sorghum used in the above experiments, 
that it was by no means of such quality as would give the best results. 
Owing to thick sowing in drills, it had not secured full development ; 
and although further experiments are necessary to determine the methods 
of cultivation which shall give the best results in product of sugar, there 
can be no question but that these conditions were far from having been 
attained in the sample made use of in the above experiments. 
From a lot of nearly three tons the best fourth was selected, and the 
average weight of these stalks was, after being stripped, almost exactly 
one-half pound each—195 stalks, by actual count, weighed 100 pounds— 
while the three-fourths remaining gave an average of 530 stripped stalks to 
100 pounds. Thereis therefore no one, probably, who would hesitate to be- 
lieve that with an improved mill, and with properly grown cane, results 
fully 100 per cent. better than these published could readily have been 
secured. 
The experiment with millet, already mentioned, gave very interesting 
results, and promises to be a new sugar-producing plant of considerable 
value. In this experiment, 130 pounds of stripped stalks, of the variety 
known as pearl millet, were passed twice through the mill, the first yield 
being 214 pounds of juice, of specific gravity 1.061, the second pressing 
giving 74 pounds of juice additional, of specific gravity 1.064. The total 
result was an amount of juice equal to 22.3 per cent. of the weight of 
stripped stalks. 
By the treatment of this juice by the process already described, 243 
pounds of juice yielded 24 pounds of sirup, which speedily crystallized, 
yielding an excellent sugar, which polarized 92°. 
The amount of sugar thus obtained in the first crystallization was 
fifteen-sixteenths pound, leaving a dark-colored molasses, which would 
doubtless yield an additional amount of sugar upon a second erystalli- 
zation. 
This experiment with millet, like those with sorghum and maize, was 
vitiated through the imperfection of the® mill, but the character of the 
result attained certainly would demand further experiments with this 
plant, especially in consideration of the ease with which it is grown and 
the abundant yield to the acre. 
An experiment was also made with a new grass from Guatemala, the 
Teosinte (Huchlena luxurians), a coarse grass somewhat resembling 
maize in its habit. In the experiment 316 pounds of stripped stalks, 
which had suffered from a heavy frost, yielded 170 pounds of juice, of 
specific gravity 1.022, or 53.8 per cent. of juice in stripped stalks. Of 
this juice, 154 pounds yielded 7? pounds of very good sirup in appearance, 
but it had a bitter taste and contained no crystallizable sugar. The 
juice was very impure, but was very readily and completely clarified 
with lime; and although this experiment failed to show any crystalliza- 
ble sugar, it was probably due to the frost to which the stalks had been 
subjected, and this plant will therefore receive further attention another 
season. 
In the experiments with sorghum and maize it was mentioned that, 
owing to the want of a suitable vessel for concentrating the sirup, the 
proper degree of concentration which would secure the maximum amount 
of crystallization was not attained; but while awaiting the concentrat- 
ing pan it was found that crystallization had taken place in each one of 
the several lots of sirup, and it was therefore thought best to secure the 
first crop of sugar, and concentrate the sirup drained from these crystals. 
