264 APPENDIX. 
In the preceding calculations we have examined the question of the 
sorgho in all its relations, both as to the process for the transforma- 
tion of its product, and the farm which gives them. In a word, it is 
certain that an establishment thus constituted can distil in the space of 
six or seven months a crop of about 50 acres, and produce by an ex- 
pense of $20,000, (in which is comprised about $17,000 fixed capital, 
represented by the apparatus and works,) a profit of $12,000, or 
thereabouts. We have said the sorgho not only furnishes to industry 
a precious element ; but furthermore, it can profitably be employed 
as a forage crop. One acre cultivated in sorgho costs less for culture, 
and pays incomparably more than the best artificial meadow. They 
have already comprehended this in the north of France, as is shown 
in one of the pamphlets previously quoted; but in those countries 
where the sorgho does not ripen, planters have to overcome difficulties 
which do not exist for us, and are far from being able to obtain, not- 
withstanding all their efforts, results equivalent to those which come 
in this country without other assistance than native labor—[From 
“ Guide du Distillateur du Sorgho a Sucre.” I’. Bourdais. 
REPORT or truzE COUNT De DAVID BEAUREGARD, 
TO THE AGRICULTURAL ASSEMBLY OF TOULON, UPON THE ALCOHOLIZA- 
TION OF THE JUICE OF THE SORGHO SUCRE. TOULON, 1857. 
WE are aware of the fact that the juice of the sorgho, whose intro- 
duction we owe to M. Montigny, has within itself all the ferment 
necessary for the transformation of its saccharine matter into alcohol. 
It ferments with such activity under a sufficiently elevated tempera- 
ture, the formation of a great quantity of alcohol is so rapid that this 
reacts upon the ferment, of which a portion precipitates itself before 
having had time to accomplish its useful transformation. 
Thus it often happens that one, two, and even three degrees of sugar 
remain still in the wine of the sorgho at the moment when the fermen- 
tation ceases. To this first cause of loss there is frequently added 
another, when large vats are made use of. 
