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148 THE CHINESE SUGAR CANE. 
cared for, finishes fermentation in three days at most. 
Nevertheless, his testimony is valuable as to the quality 
of the product. 
M. Madinier endorses the statement of M. Hardy, 
that the juice of the sorgho contains naturally a fermen- 
tative principle, sufficient for perfect alcoholization, but 
thinks it best to throw in with the juice a few of the fresh 
crushed canes, which greatly accelerates the attenuation. 
He also advises very wide and shallow fermenting 
cisterns, so as to expose as much surface to the air as 
possible, and to set the cisterns at a temperature of 
twenty or twenty-five degrees centigrade, equal to 
seventy-seven Fahrenheit. M. Sicard, in his work, 
merely collates the experiences of others, among which 
are Beauregard, Fissiaux, and Raoul. One point, how- 
ever, they all agree upon, that is, that the wash ought to 
be kept in a room, the temperature of which is eighteen 
degrees centigrade, or say sixty-four Fahrenheit. 
M. F. Bourdais, however, a distiller in Algeria, at 
length, in 1856, treats the matter in a thoroughly prac- 
tical and scientific manner ; he gives us facts, not theories, 
and proves most conclusively that the sorgho is perhaps 
the best alcohol-producing plant yet discovered. 
The operations on which he based his calculations and 
deductions were all on a large scale, and therefore less 
liable to error than the laboratory experiments of most 
of his predecessors in this field. He planted five hectares, 
say ten acres, with sorgho, and professes to give results 
with scrupulous exactitude. 
