CONFLICTING OPINIONS. 11 



Value of the research, in a material sense, to the nation. 



Aside from the value of this research from a scientific stand-point — illustrating, 

 as it does, the importance of obtaining, from an extended investigation, the 

 facts and their mutual relations in an agronomic problem — the results obtained 

 appear to this Committee to possess a high value, in a material sense, to the 

 nation. 



Whether the cultivation of a crop like sorghum, deriving its support largely 

 from the atmosphere and water — since it appears to thrive best upon light soils — 

 may or may not reward the cultivator better than the growth of cereals, it cer- 

 tainly adds a new factor to agriculture, of value, not only as a sugar producing 

 plant, but also as a food plant of no mean quality. It thrives over a very wide 

 area; and, as we have shown, develops in the warm and temperate latitudes 

 more than a single crop per annum, and becomes, certainly, in one of its 

 varieties, perennial. 



But the work is also of national importance in its relation to existing indus- 

 tries, and especially to that of the cultivation of the sugar-cane and sugar pro- 

 duction therefrom. 



In this country the sugar planter has to contend with obstacles unknown to 

 the resident of tropical countries. A greater degree of skill and knowledge is 

 here required for the attainment of the same result that elsewhere is reached 

 through the normal operation of natural causes, almost without effort on the 

 part of the planter. Such skill and knowledge can only be attained by a care- 

 fully conducted experimental inquiry, such as this investigation exhibits. 



The methods developed in the course of this investigation are also applica- 

 ble, with but slight modification, to the cultivation of the sugar-cane, and there 

 can be little doubt but that the ultimate effect of such investigations will be 

 to stimulate the Southern sugar planter to similar experiments for the ascer- 

 tainment of the mo«t favorable conditions for the prosecution of his o'vn special 

 industry, depending on the culture of tropical cane in subtropical' climates, 

 where it never attains its its fullest development, and is consequently subject 

 to many adverse conditions unknown in the tropics. 



As a work of national importance, calculated directly to benefit widelj' sepa- 

 rated sections of the country, it is one that has been wisely undertaken and 

 encouraged by the Department of Agriculture, and ia deserving of every aid 

 that Congress may be willing to grant for its encouragement and prosecution. 



The sugar planter of Louisiana and Texas may possibly discover that he has 

 at command, in one or more of the larger varieties of sorghum, which, like the 

 so-called " Honduras," " Mastodon," etc., attain at maturity, say in four or five 

 months, a growth of 18 to 20 feet in height, and a weight of 2 to 5 pounds per 

 stalk, a sugar-producing plant thoroughly adapted to his climate and soil, equal, 

 and possibly superior, in productive capacitj'^ of cane sugar, to the "Ribbon," 

 "Red, or "White" cane now grown there, and escaping the perils from frost 

 which alwa3''S attend the cultivation of the cane in those regions where the s n- 

 son is never long enough to p.?rmit its full maturity. 



Of the early maturing varities, like "Early Orange," it will be possible, in 

 Southern latitudes, to make two crops of sugar and seed in one season, and 



