106 



similar improved sorghum seed, for the sorghum plant has yet to be de- 

 veloped and improved. As an instance of the necessity for the exer- 

 cise of care in the selection of seed, the experience of two of the new 

 factories this season may be cited. One of us visited the factories at 

 Douglass and Couway Springs at the beginning of the season, about 

 September 7. At the latter place there was great complaint of the qual- 

 ity of the early cane ; seed had been obtained, supposed to be pure Early 

 Amber, but seed of later varieties, such as Orange, had been allowed to 

 become mixed with it in considerable quantities, and the result was a 

 field of cane of which the greater part was fully ripe and ready for 

 working, while a portion was still green, with the seed not yet out of 

 the dough. It required entirely too much labor to separate it in the 

 field, and when the cane was cut and brought to the factory the green 

 cane lowered the average of the whole to such an extent that it was 

 hardly fit to work for sugar. At Douglass about 100 acres had been 

 planted for early cane, with seed supposed to be Early Amber. As the 

 factory was greatly delayed in starting up, fears had been entertained 

 that this cane was overripe and deteriorating. Examination showed 

 this "early cane' 7 to be not Early Amber at all, but the old-fashioned 

 Chinese, a variety which, with us at least, did not attain its maximum 

 of sugar content until quite late in the season. Had the factory got- 

 ten into operation by the middle of August, as they expected, they 

 would have found their "early cane" entirely too green to make sugar. 



THE ORIGIN OF THE EXPERIMENTAL WORK AT THE STERLING SUGAR 

 EXPERIMENT STATION. 



In the spring of 1888 the Sterling Sirup Works planted all the varie- 

 ties of sorghum which, with the time and means at their command, they 

 could procure in this or in foreign countries, in an experimental field, 

 under as similar conditions as possible, in order to enable them to com- 

 pare the qualities of the canes of the numerous varieties, with a view 

 to selecting the best varieties for future cultivation. They had in mind 

 a similar experimental plantation in Jamaica, where sixty to seventy 

 varieties of the sugar-cane have for many years been grown in order to 

 select the varieties which were best suited to the West Indies,* the re- 

 sult of which is shown by the fact that an improved variety of sugar-cane, 

 which is sometimes called "Jamaican," because it was grown at and in- 

 troduced by the Jamaica experimental station, is now giving an ex- 

 traordinary yield of sugar in many places. 



They were induced to undertake this experimental work by the ne- 

 cessities of their business. In the past seven years they have produced, 

 each year, from 500 to 700 acres of cane, and have manufactured the 



* Analyses of samples of these different varieties from a collection exhibited at tho 

 New Orleans Exposition in 1885 were made by C. A. Crampton, at the Sugar Labo- 

 ratory of the Department of Agriculture, in its exhibit. The results of these analyses 

 were published by Prof. Morris in the Jamaica Official Gazette. 



