108 



years afterwards the chemist Acliard was able to extract but 1 per 

 cent, of sugar, and the eminent chemist Sir Humphrey Davy published 

 positive assertions that beet sugar could not be made profitably, ail I 

 that it was not fit for use. Sixty-five years after Marggraff had ex 

 tracted 5 per cent, of sugar from the beet the beet-sugar factories 

 realized only 2 per cent, of sugar from it. These facts seem to indicate 

 that the sugar beet was variable until the plant had been developed. 



Besides the variability of the sorghum plant there are other faults 

 which pertain in greater or less degree to the different varieties. Some 

 varieties are long and slender reeds with heavy seed tops and the canes 

 are liable to lodge and tangle in storms. This fault greatly increases the 

 difficulty of harvesting the canes, and the "down" or lodged canes are 

 also inferior in saccharine value.* 



Some varieties " tiller;" that is, one root produces several canes, just 

 as one grain of wheat produces several stalks. It is injurious because 

 the secondary canes ripen at different periods, and in harvesting large 

 fields of cane it is impossible to avoid mixing overripe, ripe, and unripe 

 canes. Some varieties have a habit of producing false or secondary 

 seed-heads. As soon as the cane approaches maturity, and often before 

 that period, it forms two or more new seed-heads, which rapidly de- 

 velop. This delays the ripening of the cane and lessens the yield of 

 sugar. Some varieties, as soon as fully mature, produce offshoots from 

 each joint of the canes and also offshoots from the roots, and the sugar 

 iii such rapidly disappears. Some varieties rapidly deteriorate in the 

 quality of the juice as soon as they are ripe, and allow little time to 

 manufacture the canes. Some varieties mature very small seeds, and 

 these produce plants Which are weak and slow-growing in the first 

 weeks of their existence and are kept clear from the more vigorous 

 weeds with greater difficulty than the stronger plants, which are pro- 

 duced by larger seeds. Some varieties have very impure juice and 

 some have strongly acid juice. Some varieties give light yield of cane, 

 light yield of juice, and light yield of seed. Some varieties obstinately 

 retain the glume or envelope of the seed grains, so that it can not well 

 be separated by ordinary means. Analyses seem to show that the clean 

 grain of sorghum seed is practically equal in value to corn as food for 

 stock, but the adhering glume or envelope contains tannin, which is 

 injurious; and some varieties contain much of this substance and some 

 but little. Some varieties mature so late that they give but little time 

 to manufacture the canes before frost. 



* This deterioration of lodged caue has been often noted before, but the following 

 analysis, made at this station, may serve to emphasize it: 



