GENERAL ANALYSES OF SORGHUM JUICES, ETC. 241 



some data obtained from our first experiments, which may afford some indica- 

 tions for further study, or some guide for the first attempts in manufacture. 



One of ihe points which I have endeavored to establish, without, however, 

 obtaining complete success, was this, viz: What is the time, during the period 

 of vegetation, when the stalks begin to contain sugar, and, consequently, what 

 !•? the moment when the manufacture may commence? It appeared tome that 

 this time coincided with that of the appearance of the ears; but the proportion 

 of sugar existing in the cane keeps on increasing up to the time when the seeds 

 pass into the milky stage. I have noticed that the richness in sugar in a plant 

 while blooming, diminished gradually from the lower to the upper part of the 

 stalk in the spaces between the joints, and also that the lower portion of each 

 one of these interspaces is younger and less rich in sugar than the upper one. 

 Such being the case, the middle of the stalk is the richest portion, for the lower 

 joints are hard and small. I have not been able to ascertain it with exactness, 

 but I suppose that at a later period the spaces between the joints in the lower 

 part of the stalk become impoverished, or, if the juice does not grow poorer, it 

 at least diminishes in quantity. 



The ripeness of seeds does not seem to reduce, to any considerable degree, 

 the production of sugar, at least in our climate; but as maturity is reached at 

 the end of the season, and our plants, consequently, continue to advance in 

 richness with the development of vegetation, the effect of maturity on these 

 phenomena can hardly be determined. This question can be solved only in 

 those countries where the seed's of the plant mature before the warm season is 

 over. According toM. de Beauregard's report, addressed to the " Cornice de 

 Toulon," maturity would seem to have had no injurious influence within the 

 limits of his experience; and he considers seed and sugar as two products, 

 which can be obtained jointly. On the other hand, the Zulu Caffres are accus- 

 tomed to snatch, by an abrupt pull, the panicles away from their plants as soon 

 as they show themselves, in order to increase the sugar}' quality of the stalks. 

 But this question has, after all, no importance in respect to France, since here 

 ripeness will never take place too soon to prove detrimental. 



Tlie folio wiug analy.?e.s were made by Professors Henry and Swenson, 

 o'f Wisconsin State University, in 1881-2, and, as they say, the con- 

 clusions to be drawn from them are very indefinite. It is unfortimate 

 that the development of each sample is omitted from their report. 

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