BOTANY OF SORGHXTH. 63 



a certain place on our farms better than any other plant previously tried, it 

 spread in cultivation with a rapidity no other agricultural plant ever did before 

 in this or any other country, and is the only one adapted to a wide region in- 

 troduced into the United States since colonial times which has become of sufS- 

 cient importance to be enumerated in the census. It has become the " sor- 

 ghum" of common language, and its cultivation has extended the whole length 

 and breadth of the country. 



Its adaptation to our soil and climate is abundantly demonstrated, and its 

 capacity for improvement also thoroughly proved. The Department of Agri- 

 culture has already examined more than forty varieties, some of which have 

 originated in this country. We have, now, varieties with very unlike charac- 

 ters: some mature in eighty days, others require twice as long a time, and one 

 variety has become, in a sense, perennial — a fact cot true of any other cereal 

 species grown in the country. They vary in habit of growth and in sugar con- 

 tent ; the two extremes have been developed here — the one as rich as Louisiana 

 sugar-cane, the other, the broom corn, so poor in sugar. 



Belonging to such a plastic species, with such adaptation to a wide range of 

 soil and climate, with such capacity for modification and improvement, already 

 in such wide cultivation, and promising to meet such a definite want in our ag- 

 ricultural production, it is certain that, in obedience to natural laws, some of 

 the existing varieties maj-be greatly improved, and that new ones maybe made, 

 some of which will better serve the ends we are now seeking than any varieties we 

 now have. No efforts have yet been made to increase the sugar content by system- 

 atic, intelligent, and long continued selection. In the light of the successful 

 results of experiment in this direction with sugar beets, and with the abundant 

 experience we have with other species as to other results attained by such pro- 

 cesses, we have much to hope as to improvement in this character with a spe- 

 cies which has been so variously molded to the uses of man. 



Agriculture, however intelligently pursued, is more of an art than a science. 

 Hence, the ultimate profitableness of any agricultural crop introduced into a 

 region new to it, can only be determined by actual trial through a series of years. 

 The nature of the economical problem is such that science can not predict the 

 result. It can, however, render great aid in making success more probable, and 

 in hastening it where it otherwise might be much delayed. It can suggest 

 means and methods, can indicate promising directions for experiment, can aid 

 in foreseeing and overcoming many difficulties, suggest remedies for mishaps, 

 and, in a multitude of ways, aid in solving the practical problem. This is es- 

 pecially true when the crop is to be manufactured into a commercial product, 

 and emphatically so in the production of sugar, the whole economical aspects 

 of which have been changed by the aid of modern science. 



No agricultural species can be cultivated profitably every-where within its 

 range of actual growth, and it is yet to be demonstrated where the best regions 

 are for the most profitable growth of sorghum. This is only partly an agricul- 

 tural problem; it is as intimately related to the question of winning the sugar 

 in the best form and at the least expense. For the solution of the latter, scien- 

 tific work is needed. It can ultimately be done in the sugar-house; it may be 

 more quickly done, and with vastly greater economy, if this be aided by the 

 scientific laboratory. The profitable production of sugar from cane, as now 

 pursued in Louisiana, and from beets, as pursued in Europe, was achieved only 



