REPORT OF M. TURREL. 8385 
indispensable on the well cultivated farm, cannot be profitably under- 
taken, without the aid of fodder crop ; and if the plant which occu- 
pies our attention demands simply the manures which cattle furnish, 
it gives, on its part, for their nourishment, a remarkably large crop 
of fodder. 
In truth, stock greedily eat the leaves of the sorgho, which can be 
fed to them green, at the time when the meadows have ceased to yield 
cuttings ; and as they can be gathered from September to December, 
it follows that, during four months, the sorgho will furnish an agreea- 
ble and nutritious fodder. Horses and mules are exceedingly fond of 
it: it can be cured for winter. 
We have only adverted to the possibility of the economical extrac- 
tion of the sugar from the sorgho ; but the discoveries which we owe 
to the talent of M. de Montigny, of the production of sugar from 
this plant by the inhabitants of the north of China, authorise the 
belief that, when their processes of extraction become familiar to us, 
the sugar sorgho, by reason of its saccharine richness, can profitably 
replace, in Provence and Algeria, the beet, whose culture for sugar is 
not expedient in warm climates. 
In truth, the sugar beet, which contains only eight to ten per cent. 
of sugar, cannot be compared, in saccharine richness, with the sugar 
sorgho, which has from sixteen to twenty per cent. And, further- 
more, if we consider that beet juice yields but three to four per 
cent. of alcohol—and that unsuitable for wine making—whilst the 
juices of the sorgho yield from six to ten per cent. of excellent alco- 
hol, appropriate for all industrial and economical purposes ; we shall 
have the most just and least exaggerated idea of the future of the 
plant upon which I have sought to lay before you the facts practically 
demonstrated. It but just appears above the agricultural horizon; 
and while it already recommends itself by precious qualities, it causes 
us to cherish most flattering hopes. Thus, your Excellency, have I 
endeavored to enumerate its strong claims to yonr enlightened atten- 
tion, for its bearing upon the interests of Algeria. 
I am, with respects, Sir, &e. &c.. 
S. TuRrReEL, 
Secy. of the Agricultural Assembly of Toulon. 
