39^ THE CEREALS IN AMERICA 



thus making the percentage of available sugar still less. The total per cent ot 

 sugar in the jui'ce of sorghum manufactured commercially has probably been con 

 siderably under ten per cent. 



3. The rapid deterioration of the sugar in the sorghum from unknown causes, 

 usually considered climatic, or from improper handling. Sugar cane may lie some 

 weeks before it is used j beets may be stored for months ; sorghum must be used 

 at once. 



4. Imperfect methods of extracting the juice. 



5. Impropar treatment of the extracted juice. 



All these difficulties must be overcome before the manufacture of sorghum sugar 

 can be a success. In the nature of the case the first three items are the most 

 serious. 



Manifestly, continued experiment may find some localities especially adapted to 

 the production of high yield. The Delaware Station reports yields of cane varying 

 from ten to twenty-five tons per acre, with available sugar varying from 2,700 to 6,600 

 pounds per acre, thus comparmg favorably with the production of sugar from sugar 

 cane or sugar beets. This result has been brought about partly by local adaptation, 

 partly by cultural methods and partly by selecting during ten years seed from sor- 

 ghum of high quality. Beginning with an amber cane in 1889 containing eleven 

 per cent of sugar with a purity of sixty-five per cent, canes were produced in 1898 

 with more than twenty-one per cent of sugar having more than eighty-three per 

 cent purity. 



Some improvements in the removal of the leaves and heads from the canes and 

 in the extraction of the juice have been effected, in the opinion of the Delaware 

 Station. It is also proposed that the difficulty due to the perishable nature of the 

 sorghum may be overcome by several small plants for cleaning the cane and ex- 

 tracting and concentrating the juice, with a central factory for the extraction of 

 the sugar. 



*' To summarize, use seed from cane testing as high as possible in sugar, fron, 

 15-18 per cent, with juice purities in excess of 80 degrees. Select land which will 

 produce fifty bushels or more of corn after repeated manuring with crimson clover, 

 which crop may have been pastured down or plowed under, or cured as hay. Fer- 

 tilize with muriate of potash broadcast at rate of 160 lbs. per acre. To this add 150 

 lbs. of nitrate of soda, provided some crop other than crimson clover has immediately 

 preceded sorghum. Seed during the last fortnight in May, in rows 36 inches apart. 

 Let each row consist of two lines of plants 4 inches apart, and in these lines let 

 the plants stand at regular intervals of 6 inches. To each plant would then be 

 given 108 square inches of soil surface. Cultivate as if for Indian corn. Prepare 

 to begin milling during the last fortnight in September, provide cane for sixty days' 

 work, to close November 15th. Such a field so planted and tilled should yield raw 

 sugar in excess of 5,000 lbs. per acre." l 



562. Sorghum Sirup. — Sweet sorghum is mainly grown for the production of 

 sirup, although its production for this purpose has declined. Sorghum juice has a 

 larger proportion of solids not sugar than maple juice or sugar cane juice and wher 



1 Del. Bui. 51 (1901), p. II. 



