OHIO TERRACES. 67 
the cost of the production of sugar or syrup will be re- 
duced to the expens® solely of hauling and working up 
the canes. 
These will compare favorably with the best results of 
sugar manufacture from the tropical cane in Louisiana; 
they much exceed the ordinary profits of cotton growing 
in Mississippi and Carolina, and these facts require only 
to be known and appreciated in order to insure the 
permanent establishment of sugar production from sor- 
ghum throughout a vast central area of the continent. 
The fact that these lands are always most fully developed 
along the large Western rivers, and that their products are 
thus brought within easy reach of market by water car- 
riage, is an important consideration additional to the ad- 
vantages above stated. Next to the bluff or an elevated 
limestone soil of the first quality, the sandy or gravelly 
terraces of the Ohio Valley deserve a prominent place. 
These are the best natural soils; the most unsuitable of all 
others for cane growing are the alluvial bottoms and wet 
prairies. Intermediate between the best and the worst are 
many varieties of soils, which by proper tillage and the 
use of suitable fertilizers, may be brought to the highest 
standard of productiveness, if the essential requisite of a 
congenial climate be not wanting. 
