NECESSITY FOR FURTHER RESEARCH. 15 



a sugar producing plant, there yet remains many questions of the great- 

 est practical value, concerning which we know very little indeed ; and 

 it is to be hoped that we have long ago ceased to speculate, when, ac- 

 curate and repeated experiments alone can assist us in a correct solu- 

 tion of these questions. 



It is proposed to indicate a few of the more prominent questions con- 

 nected with this industry, which are of practical importance, and await 

 • solution. 



It must not be forgotten that, owing to the number of conditions 

 which affect each experiment, but few of which we may take cogni- 

 zance, that no conclusion may be safely drawn from one, or even 

 many results ; but, at the same time, every carefully recorded observa- 

 tion is of value, and will serve in the final determination of the truth. 

 Not alone in this, but in every other inquiry is it true, that hasty gen- 

 eralizations are the very bane of science ; and yet we have seen how 

 this unfortunate tendency has retarded the development of this indus- 

 try for over a quarter of a century. From a single poorly conducted ex- 

 periment, it was decided that, practically, no sugar could be made 

 from sorghum, owing to the invei'sion of the sugar, which, through 

 some mistaken method of manufacture, resulted in this one case. 

 From the examination of a single one of the hundred varieties of sor- 

 ghum, the sweeping conclusion was published, by one who should have 

 been an authority in agricultural science, that no variety was of any 

 value for the production of sugar. Through imperfect methods of test- 

 ing, one finds the seed of sorghum a rival of tan bark in its con- 

 tents of tannic acid, despite the fact that such a discovery would render 

 sorghum unique among the cereals ; another fails to find in the juice 

 of sorghum a trace of glucose, although it is never absent ; while still 

 another bases a method for the extraction of sugar upon his dis- 

 covery (?) of crystals of sugar in the fresh stalks of sorghum. Let 

 each remember that, for every incorrect observation or result I'eported, 

 tiiere is necessitated at least ten times the labor to disprove it — and they 

 maybe less disposed, without repeated confirmation, to j^iublish, although 

 it is to be hoped they will not neglect to record. 



Above all, let us not consider that we are bound, at the present, to pro- 

 fess complete knowledge concerning the entire subject; for we may feel 

 no hesitation in confessing our ignorance, which our attempts to conceal 

 makes too evident. 



At a recent meeting of sorghum growers, the question as to the soil 

 best adapted for the cultivation of the plant was under discussion. All 

 must admit that is a question of extreme practical importance. 

 After a long discussion, with the presentation of as many views as 



