10 SOEGHUM. 



that there was not any crystallizable sugar in the juice, or but a very small 

 portion, while others, equally as strong, held the contrary opinion. 



c. Dr. J. Lawreuce Smith (Annual Report, Department of Agri- 

 culture, 1857, p. 192) further says: 



It is not to be forgotten that sugar making is an art, and can not be prac- 

 ticed by every one with a mill and a set of kettles. •■■■ •■■ * What was neces- 

 sarj" for the beet root is doubtlessly required for the sorgho, namely, a thorough 

 study of its nature, with a process of extracting the sugar especially adapted 

 to it. 



d. J. Stanton Gould, "Report on Sorghum Culture" (Transactions 

 New York State Agricultural Society, 1863, p. 740), says, in view 

 of the discordant testimony concerning the sorghum question : 



These conflicting opinions might easily be reconciled by a few well-directed 

 experiments. 



Again he says, same page : 



After the most careful inquiry, orally and by letter, I am unable to find that 

 any such experiments have ever been made. 



Again, he says (p. 747) : 



These experiments are not conclusive, and the whole question needs a care- 

 ful and accurate investigation. 



e. Dr. J. ]VI. Shaffer, Secretary Iowa State Agricultural Society, 

 says (Annual Report, Department of Agriculture, 1868, p. 515): 



The production of sugar (from sorghum) i^ rather the result of accident 

 than of anjr well- digested system for its extraction. 



From the foregoiug discordant statements upon some of the more 

 important points selected for com2)arison, viz. (1) the kind of sugar 

 found in the sorghum ; (2) the hest variety of sorghum for the pro- 

 duction of sitgar; (3) the time for harvesting, and when the maxi- 

 mum of sugar is present in the juice ; (4) the prompt working of the 

 canes after cutting, etc., it is not a matter of wonder that the com- 

 mittee of the National Academy of Sciences, in their report on the 

 " Sorghum Sugar Industry," should have said : 



It is evident that nothing was definitely determined, even on points where 

 work in the laboratory, and the exercise of analytical skill, were apparently 

 sufficient to settle most doubts, aside from economic questions, relating to 

 methods of manufacture. 



Such, we find, was the condition of the "sorghum sugar question" up to a 

 period immediately preceding the researches undertaken by the United States 

 Department of Agriculture, in 1878, by their present chemist, Dr. Peter Collier. 



Nor that they should have, in view of the results of these investi- 

 gations, reported as to the 



