44 Select Plants for Industrial Culture and 



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, 1880-82 ; further, the essay 

 by Commissioner Hon. Gr. B. Loring, 1883. In connexion 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 presence 

 of cane-sugar in the juice of the best varieties 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 yield of juice in 

 stripped stalks from plants grown at Washington being 58 per cent., 

 the sugar really obtainable by ordinary process of manufacture from 

 the juice being 11*30 per cent. It is further demonstrated, that the 

 Sorghum-stalks should be cut only, when the seeds are already of a 

 doughy consistence or still harder, that the stalks should be worked 

 up immediately after cutting ; further it is shown, that the sugar 

 from Sorghum is not inferior to that from cane or beet, and that 

 excellent sugar can likewise be obtained from maize ; that Sorghum, 

 when advancing to maturity, will resist some frost ; that no more 

 than 12^ per cent, of the sugar is lost by the evaporation of the juice 

 to syrup, quite as great a loss taking place in the juice of sugar-cane 

 by defacation, skimming and inversion (change into glucose or grape- 

 sugars). The committee considered this new Sorghum-industry 

 placed already on a safe and profitable footing. Sorghum-stubbles 

 are of surprising value as pastoral feed. Sugar-Sorghum was intro- 

 duced into the United States for rural purposes only 30 years ago ; 

 but its culture spread with unexampled rapidity there, having only 

 its counterpart in the tea- and cinchona-culture of the last decennia in 

 India. The process of manufacture of sugar from Sorghum is not 

 more difficult than that of cane, and less complicated than that of beet. 

 Some varieties mature in 80 days, others require twice that time, the 

 Orange-variety becoming perennial, and is with the Amber-variety 

 most saccharine, while the Honduras-variety gives a very heavy crop; 

 the broomcorn-variety is poor in sugar. Sorghum will thrive well in 

 sandy loam too light for maize and in a clime too dry for that corn, 

 and can be grown closer. In North- Western Victoria it grew at the 

 rate of 5 feet in 2 months [J. P. Eckert]. The variety A. bicolor 

 (Roxburgh) ripens its seeds in Lower India within three or four 

 months of the time of sowing, the produce being often upwards of 

 one hundredfold, and the grain particularly wholesome for human 

 sustenance. Sorghum giganteum (Edgeworth) represents a form of 

 very tall growth. 



