948 APPENDIX. 
favorable conditions, contain, and will, by a peculiar mode of manu- 
facture, yield a proportion of real cane sugar, however small that 
proportion may be. 
The remarkable assertions of Messrs. Hayes and Bacon must, there- 
fore, in my opinion, have arisen from two causes, of which those gentle- 
men were not aware, viz., 
Ist. The sorgho stalks, or canes, which they examined were, in all 
probability, either unripe, or past the stage at which crystallizable 
sugar existed in their juice ; or, again, those canes might have been 
grown on such rich lands as did not permit of their juices being per- 
fectly elaborated. 
2d. The “very carefully prepared syrup of Col. R. Peters, of 
Georgia ” had, in reality, been boiled down in the rudest manner, in a 
large iron cow-pot, after a constant exposure to a great heat for a 
period of from seven to eight hours. 
It might be an interesting and highly instructive experiment to 
such chemists (and others who know nothing of sugar making) if they 
would try the effect of from seven to eight hours continuous boiling 
(or simmering) on a simple solution of pure lump sugar and water ; 
always remembering that a large iron cow-pot (hung in a very primi- 
tive manner) is the vessel to be employed. What do these gentlemen 
imagine would be the product resulting from the action of such a 
long continued heat on this simple solution of pure cane sugar? What 
would be the proportion of crystallizable sugar remaining, and how 
much glucose would they have achieved? I should like them to 
make this trial, and favor the public with a statement of their results. 
I beg you, my dear, Sir, to believe that I do not for a moment call 
in question the ability and honest purpose of such well educated and 
respectable men as Doctors Hayes and Bacon; but asa dabbler in 
chemistry, and as an old sugar planter, I well know how easily men 
of the highest order of intelligence may be deceived in such investi- 
gations, and may omit to make due allowance for unknown circum- 
stances, which may, nevertheless, exercise an entire controlling influ- 
ence on the result of their experiments. 
So far, therefore, in answer to your inquiries respecting the Chinese 
Sorgho, which I hope may be satisfactory ; but in speaking of the 
