AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 193 



While the true sugar-cane was still considered a 

 possible recourse, a saccharine sorghum commanded 

 much interest from the impression that it was ca- 

 pable of producing crystallizable sugar which the 

 name given to it, "Chinese sugar-cane/' encouraged. 

 As early as 1859 there were "several kinds of cane 

 crushers on sale in San Francisco." The State leg- 

 islature in 1863 offered large bounties for sorghum 

 sugar as well as for sugar from cane but none of these 

 bounties was ever claimed and the law was repealed 

 in 1871. Before that, however (1867), it was writ- 

 ten : "Chinese sugar cane or sorghum has been culti- 

 vated to a comparatively large extent in previous 

 years. So far as known no sugar of consequence has 

 been made and as a general rule, the quality of the 

 syrup offered has been quite inferior and slow of 

 sale at unremunerative prices." 



There was a revival of interest in sorghum molasses 

 about ten years later when Peter Collier's quest of 

 sorghum and corn-stalk sugar was causing large ex- 

 penditures in the Middle West for laboratories and 

 factories to secure sugar for 1 cent a pound. Im- 

 proved varieties were introduced and some sorghum 

 molasses was made with little profit, and there has 

 been a scattered small production ever since. The 

 call for sweetening during the war and the high price 

 of sugar since, revived sorghum sirup making and 

 one factory made ten thousand gallons in 1920, but 

 no great production has been undertaken. 



While hope of home-grown sugar still lingered 

 with the canes, the sugar-beet began to command 



