SORGHO AND IMPHEE. 269 
farm, because the raw matter is very cumbrous, difficult of transport- 
ation ; and supposing even the establishment of a central distillery in 
the middle of an agricultural district fit for the culture of the sorgho, 
it is probable that the cost of transport would be very high, and that 
because of the rapid change of the saccharine matter by spontaneous 
fermentation in the masses of the stalks, the greater part of the 
saccharine richness would be lost for the producer and to the manu- 
facturer. 
It is in the field that the sorgho preserves most completely its prop- 
erties, a precious peculiarity for Algeria, as the different reports of 
M. Hardy prove; for Guadaloupe, as M. Grellet Balguerie writes to 
us ; and in similar climates. 
Cultivation on a large scale* seems to me fitting for making profit- 
able the cultivation of this plant. This opinion is the irresistible con- 
clusion to which we arrived. The cultivator on a large scale can 
afford the cost of manufacture: plate cylinders, hydraulic presses, fer- 
menting vats, and still retorts. Small culture would be entirely un- 
able to make similar expenditures ; and on this scale sorgho should be 
cultivated only for the production of seeds—that is to say, in the light 
of a product less remunerative than the cultivation of vegetables, or, 
very exceptionally, for the extraction of the fermentable saccharine 
matter, as a sort of recompense or substitute needed because of the 
grape disease in vine countries, where wine is no longer grown. 
With this view, in the districts near Toulon the landholders have 
mixed in their vintages and fermented with grape juice the liquid ex- 
tracted from the sorgho, and obtained wine more abundant, and with- 
out any unpleasant flavor. This mixed wine, whose production has 
been very limited, was unfortunately consumed at home by the fam- 
ilies of the cultivators. 
Further, cultivation on a large seale could not be undertaken with 
* We are in position to affirm that a society, important because of the honorable 
names attached to it, has been formed in Paris, with a view of making experiments on 
a large scale. This year, even, it will undertake the manufacture of about 85 acres of 
sorgho, which have been cultivated in the neighborhood of Bayonne. We might quote 
the names which are at the head of this Association, called an Experimental and Pro- 
tective Imphee Association, which has a great future; but we prefer to wait until we 
are able to quote the facts arrived at, and that will not be a long time. 
