M. BOURDAIS’ STATEMENT. 261 
mired by the Director of the Government Nursery of Algiers, on the 
occasion of a visit which he was good enough to accord me. He has 
frequently noticed the existence on my place, of hills of sorgho, tiller- 
ing from sixteen to eighteen stalks of twelve feet in height, which 
often were five and a half inches in circumference at their base. In 
other instances ten to twelve stalks have been very commonly noticed ; 
the average is from six to seven. 
It is commonly known that M. Hardy is one of the first who has 
occupied his time with the culture of saccharine plants, and very espe- 
cially with the Chinese Imphee. The intelligent experiments which he 
has undertaken, upon a small scale it is true, (about half an acre,) and 
as he says himself, deprived of favorable conditions, that is to say, not 
having at his disposition any other instrument for distillation than 
Saleron’s still retort ; these trials, I say, although not permitting him 
to arrive at results completely satisfactory, have not however suffered 
him to have any doubt upon the future of a culture which promises to 
be an inexhaustible source of riches and prosperity for Algeria. 
Although it has been necessary for me to cultivate my grounds at 
great expense, (at first with the pick, to eradicate all the stumps and 
stubble of the old swamp ; afterwards with the plow, to bury as deeply 
as possible by very arduous labor ; and finally to make ditches and 
drains, for the aération of the soil,) the result has amply repaid me“or 
all these labors attending the first cultivation. I will now confine 
myself to the details relative to the fabrication of the wines of the 
sorgho, to their distillation, and finally to the rectification of the bran- 
dies which have been obtained from it. I will explain as clearly as 
possible different methods I have employed; and I shall deem myself 
happy if these reflections can open the way to other investigators. 
DETAILS OF MANUFACTURE. 
The canes, stripped of their leaves, are submitted to the energetic 
action of a cylinder, with three rollers moved by steam, and making fifty 
revolutions in a minute. The vesou, or juice, runs into a vat of a capacity 
of about one thousand gallons, placed under the cylinder. This first 
operation finished, the bagasse passed out of the cylinder contains still a 
large quantity of saccharine matter, which can be extracted in scarcely 
