412 GRAPE CULTURE AND WINE-MAKING. 



Convinced by tliis time that it was valuable at least for the 

 production of soiling forage and dried fodder, I next turned my 

 attention to its saccharine properties, and fortunately induced my 

 friend, Dr. Robt. Battey, of Rome, Ga., who was at that time pur- 

 suing the study of experimental chemistry in the well-known lab- 

 oratory of Prof Rooth, of Philadelphia, to test it. As the result 

 of his experiments. Dr. Battey sent me three small phials — one 

 containing a fine sirup, one a sample of crude brown sugar, and 

 the other a very good sample of crystallized sugar. This I be- 

 lieve to be the first crystallized sugar made in the United States 

 from the juice of the Sorgho sucre; and as Dr. Battey 's opinion 

 of its value as a sugar plant fully agreed with the reports of the 

 French savans, who had investigated its properties, and with my 

 own convictions, I disseminated the seed more widely during the 

 year 1856, and planted nearly two acres, for the purpose of rais- 

 ing the seed largely, and more fully testing the saccharine prop- 

 erty and the ability of the plant to bear repeated cuttings, like 

 the Egyptian and other varieties of millet. It was planted very 

 late, on thin land, and received but imperfect culture, and yet I 

 that year cut it three times^ and saved a late crop of fodder from it 

 in addition. The present year (1857) I have cut it four times up 

 to the present date, August 26. 



During the summer of 1856, particular attention was called to 

 the sirup-making properties of this plant by the Report of Gov- 

 ernor Hammond, of South Carolina, whose experiments had been 

 most ably and carefully conductetl. 



This Report was read before the " Beach Island (S. C.) Farm- 

 ers' Club," and was followed by that of Colonel Peters, of Atlanta, 

 and others, all of which were published, and presented such satis- 

 factory results that the agricultural community generally were 

 aroused to the importance of the new "sugar-cane," and desirous 

 of giving it a trial. The largest growers of the plant at this time 

 (1856) were Absalom Jackson, Esq., of Montgomery, Ala. ; Col. 

 R. Peters, of Atlanta; Dr. Whitten, of Hancock Co. ; Dr.Daniell, 

 of Decatur, Ga., and the writer. The seed raised by these persons 

 was, we believe, nearly all saved, and very widely disseminated 

 over the Union, but principally through the Southern States, 

 where, unquestionably, the plant attains its fullest and most per- 

 fect development. Twenty or thirty thousand packages of the 

 seed alluded to were scattered over the country, and in the South 

 alone probably thousands of acres are now growing. A large 

 number of the growers are preparing to convert the juice of the 

 Sorgho into sirup and sugar ; and if an easy and economical proc- 

 ess for crystallizing the latter can be employed, this plant will at 

 once become one of our most important staple productions. I 

 have, within the past two months, received letters from gentlemen 

 in nearly every one of the Southern States, who were raising the 

 cane from seed which I furnished, and the terms of praise and 



