SORGHUM; . 



ITS CULTURE AXD MAXUFACTURE. 



CHAPTER I. 



(a.) Conflicting opinions on essential points before the investigations at the 



Department of Agriculture. 

 (6.) Historj- of the development of the Beet Sugar Industry in Europe, 

 (c.) Necessity for further research, 

 (d. ) Future prospects of the Sorghum Sugar Industry. 



PRELIMINARY, 

 lu 1877, wlieu the author was invited to take charge of the Chem- 

 ical Division of the Department of Agriculture, at Washington, the 

 Commissioner of Agriculture, General Wm. G. Le Due, directed him 

 to undertake the investigation of sorghum and maize as sugar pro- 

 ducing plants, since the results, recently secured in Minnesota, from 

 a variety of sorghum known as the " Early Amber," had again 

 aroused the public interest, which for some years had been dormant, 

 as to the possibility of producing our own supply of sugar. The in- 

 vestigation was beguu during the season of 1878, and Avith results so 

 satisfactory and surprising, that it was the determination of the De- 

 partment to prosecute them to the end. From each of four varieties 

 of sorghum grown upon the grounds of the Dejiartment, there was 

 made a large quantity of excellent sugar by processes practically 

 identical with those u.sed upon the sugar plantations of Cuba and 

 Louisiana; and the quantity of sugar obtained from the crop, was 

 fairly comparable with that obtained from the sugar-cane. 



These investigations were continued by the author during the years 

 1879, 1880, 1881, and 1882, although without the focilities, during 

 the last two years, to make them fully successful. The result has been, 

 that the sorghum sugar industry, during the past three or four years, 

 has been developed to a degree that, while it has hardly reached the 

 proportions which its ardent advocates have anticipated, has at least 

 confounded and silenced those who have from the first predicted 

 failure. 



It is hardly surprising, that the results obtained at the Department 



