CAUSES OF FAILURE ES' MAXUF-^CTUEE OF SUGAB. 537 



Chinese sorghums and sorghums which have been examined heretofore 

 is in the content of sugar and juice which these contain, and that there 

 is no reason to doubt but that the better varieties could be substituted 

 for them, care being taken to select only such varieties as would ma- 

 ture iu the northefn part of China, where, as ^linister Angell informs 

 me, these sorghums are grown much as maize is in this country, and 

 for the same purpose. 



It is interesting to observe that, in China, where for centuries the 

 sorghums have been cultivated ; in Tiirkistan, where, as Mr. Kules- 

 hoff, of the Agricultural Academy of Moscow, informs me, s^r^rhum 

 is one of the leading crops; and in Africa and India, where it is the 

 leading cereal, the chief value of this interesting plant has so long re- 

 mained unknown. 



THE CAUSES OF FAILUEE EN' THE 3IAXUFACTURE OF SUGAB. 



The results of these investigations and experiments conducted dur- 

 ing the seasons of 1879 and 1881, serve to account satisfactorily for 

 not only the failures at Washington, but for most of the fiiilures of 

 those who have attempted the manufacture of sugar fi\)m sorghum 

 during the past thirty years. 



As it is of vital importance that the causes of failure may be clearly 

 understood, they will be briefly stated. 



The chief sources of failure are as follows : 



1. The immaturity of the sorghum at the period when it is cut and 

 worked. This may be due to late planting, as in our experience in 

 1881, or to the selection of a variety which requires more time for its 

 complete maturity than the season in any given latitude may give. 

 The importance, then, of selecting only such varieties as will mature 

 sufficiently long before frosts, to give a reasonable time for working the 

 crop, can not be overestimated. 



The time required for the several varieties to reach a good condition 

 for sugar from the time of planting the seed, has been found from the 

 results of experiments in 1880 and 1881, to be as follows : 



