232 APPENDIX. 
pamphlets, which Isend you. I hope that you will find that they con- 
tain all the information which you desire. I cannot add to it. With 
best wishes for your complete success in your laudable efforts to 
introduce into the United States a plant which will add to the valuable 
products of the country, 
Iam very respectfully, 
Your obedient servant, 
J. Y. MASON. 
Messrs. Hepczs, Mocxsre & Co., Philadelphia. 
Copy.] Paris, April 20, 1857. 
His Excellency Jonny Y. Mason, United States Minister. 
Dear Sir,—Immediately on the receipt of your favor, containing 
inquiries relative to the sorgho sugar plant, and the possibility of 
crystallizing its sugar, I called on the gentlemen here who could give 
me the best information upon this important subject. I enclose copy 
of a letter I received last night from M. Louis Vilmorin, one of the 
most learned (theoretically and practically) agriculturists of Europe, 
who has made a particular study of the sorgho plant, and is the best 
authority, I think, upon which we may rely. 
To his letter, M. Vilmorin has added the accompanying eight 
pamphlets relative to the cultivation and extraction of alcohol, sugar, 
etc., which were published at Paris, Marseilles, Toulon, and also at 
Constantine, in Algiers, in 1855, 1856, and 1857. I trust that these will 
answer your purpose. Should you want further explanations, I will 
be most happy to procure them for you; yet I think that these will 
be sufficient to prove that sorgho sugar can be crystallized, and that the 
sorgho in its other products also is destined to render immense services 
to mankind. 
Placing myself at your disposal for any information tending to the 
spread of useful knowledge and international courtesy, 
I have the honour to be your Excellency’s 
Very humble and obd’t serv’t, 
ALEXANDRE VATTEMARE. 
