210 



SORGHUM. 



The following table gives the results for the season of 1881, showing 

 the per cent of juice, and of each of its constituents, as also of avail- 

 able sugar, calculated to the stripped stalks : 



PERCENTAGE OF SUCROSE, TOTAL SOLIDS, WATER, AXD AVAILABLE SUGAR, IN 

 STRIPPED STALKS, OBTAINED IN JUICE AT DIFFERENT STAGES. 



It will be seen in the foregoing table, that there is an uninterrupted 

 increase in the percentage of sucrose, total solids, available sugar, and 

 specific gravity, with a corresponding decrease in the percentages of 

 water, to about the sixteenth stage. During the sixteenth, seventeenth, 

 and eighteenth stages, the per cent of available sugar in the stalks 

 remains nearly constant, and at its maximum ; although the per 

 cent of sucrose and of available sugar in the juice obtained, as has 

 been shown, is at its maximum at the eighteenth stage. 



The number of pounds of available sugar to be obtained from a ton 

 of stalks, at the different stages, is also given in a separate column. 

 From these results, it would appear, as the average result of 122 

 analyses of thirty-five varieties of sorghum, that 133 pounds of sugar 

 from a ton of stripped stalks is not beyond the limits of even proba- 

 bility. It will also be seen that these same stalks, if cut while the 

 seed is in a doughy condition, as shown by the ninth stage, would 

 yield only 15 pounds of sugar per ton of stalks. 



