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crop. Each year they have planted the common varieties, and also 

 varieties new to them which they could readily procure. The selection 

 of better varieties and the improvement of the quality of the canes is 

 a matter of importance to them, as it is to all others who are concerned 

 in the sorghum industry. 



It appeared to the Sterling Sirup Works that the first step to be 

 taken in improving the sorghum plant was to collect as many varieties 

 as possible, from all localities where sorghum is grown, to acclimate 

 them, and to practically test the numerous varieties in all the points 

 which constitute a good variety of sorghum. 



It is now to be regretted that a much more extended search was not 

 made, in this and in foreign countries, for other rare and unknown 

 varieties, but they then regarded this year's work as only the beginning 

 of a private research which would continue for some years. 



The object of the experimental work was to improve the sorghum 

 plant. 



(1) Improved varieties of sorghum should bo developed, producing 

 canes of uniform saccharine quality, to lessen the unusual variableness 

 which now characterizes the sorghum plant. 



(2) The physical or outward character of the canes should be improved 

 to obviate faults and also to increase the yield of cane in tons per acre. 



(3) The percentage of cane sugar in the juices of the cane should be 

 increased. 



(4) The percentage of substances in the juice which lessen the yield 

 of sugar should be diminished. 



THE NECESSITY FOR IMPROVING THE SORGHUM PLANT. 



The sorghum plant is adapted to large areas of the country which are 

 not adapted to the production of sugar from the sugar cane or from the 

 sugar beet. It is especially adapted to the dry climate of thegreat West. 

 Its cultivation is suited to the habits of the farming population. When 

 the sorghum plant has been successfully developed and improved as 

 other sugar-producing plants have been improved, the sorghum-sugar 

 industry will prosper and will employ capital and labor in producing 

 the sugar which we now import. 



THE FAULTS OF THE SORGHUM PLANT. 



The sorghum plant is sometimes a good sugar-producing plant, some- 

 times it is merely a sirup-producing plant. This variability in the 

 chemical composition of its juices is what might be expected from a 

 plant which has not yet been bred up to fixed t^pes of excellence by 

 long-continued selections of seed from the finest plants of the best 

 varieties. 



In this connection it is interesting to note that in 1747 the chemist 

 MarggrafT was able to extract 5 per cent, of sugar from the beet; fifty 



