Naturalisation in Extra-Tropical Countries. 39 



Andropogron saccharatus, Roxburgh.* (Sorghum saccharatum, Persoon.) 

 Tropical Asia, or perhaps only indigenous in equatorial Africa. 

 The Broom-corn or Sugar-Millet ; also passing as " Durra," 

 "Dochna," and "Battari." Tall, usually annual. Produces of 

 all grasses, except the Teosinte and maize, the heaviest of any 

 fodder-crops in warm climates. From the saccharine juice sugar is 

 obtainable, A sample of such, prepared from plants of the Mel- 

 bourne Botanic Garden, was shown already at the Exhibition of 

 1862. This Sorghum furnishes also material for a well-known kind 

 of brooms. Mr. Simmonds relates, that as many as 150,000 doz. of 

 these brooms have been made in one single factory during a year. 

 To pigs this plant is very fattening also. Mr. F. Rosan obtained 

 by the aid of irrigation as much as 30 tons of cut sorghum in a 

 season from an acre on the Lower Murray-River. The plant can 

 bo advantageously utilised for preparing syrup. For this purpose 

 the sap is expressed at the time of flowering, and simply evaporated ; 

 the yield is from 100-200 gallons from the acre. Already in 1860 

 nearly seven millions of gallons of sorghum-treacle were produced 

 in the United States. General Le Due, then Commissioner for 

 agriculture at Washington, stated, that Mr. Seth Kenny, of 

 Minnesota, obtained from the " Early Amber " variety of this 

 Sorghum up to 250 gallons of heavy syrup per acre. Machinery 

 for the manufacture of sorghum-sugar on plantations can be erected 

 at a cost of 50 to 100. Sorghum-juice can be reduced to treacle 

 and sugar without the use of chemicals, beyond clearing with lime 

 and neutralising the lime, remaining in the juice, by sulphurous 

 acid. Raw sorghum-sugar is nearly white. By an improved 

 method Mr. F. L. Stewart obtained 10 Ibs. of sugar from a gallon 

 of dense syrup. At the State-University's experimental farm, in 

 Wisconsin, Professors Swenson and Henry have proved, that 

 sorghum-sugar, equal to the best cane-sugar, can be produced at 

 4|- cents per pound. The seeds are very valuable for stable-fodder 

 as well as for poultry-feed, and may even be utilised for bread and 

 cakes. The stem can be used as a culinary vegetable. See also the 

 elaborate chemical reports by Dr. P. Collier, Washington, 1880-2 ; 

 farther, the essay by Commissioner Hon. G. B. Loring, 1883. In 

 connection with the new and extensive irrigation-scheme of the 

 Victorian Government, initiated by the Honorable Alfred Deakin, 

 the culture also of the Sugar-Millet should assume grand dimension 

 in regions hitherto too dry for it. 



An able report from a committee of the National Academy of 

 Science, submitted to the senate of the United States on the sugar- 

 producing capacity of the Sorghum, gives the following conclusions : 

 That from about 4,500 most accurate analyses, instituted by Dr. 

 Collier in the Department of Agriculture in Washington, the pre- 

 sence of cane-sugar in the juice of the best varities of Sorghum 

 (Amber, Honduras and Orange) in such quantity is established, as 

 to equal the yield of that of sugar-cane, the average quantity of 

 crystallisable sugar in the juice being 16 per cent., the average 



