FIELD, ORCHARD, AND GARDEN CROPS 165 



and it requires a great deal of water. If water and plant food 

 be supplied, it will thrive on any well-drained soil. 



The stalks are cut in the fall, and 

 crushed in mills. The juice is boiled 

 and evaporated to form a sirup. 

 There are several different methods 

 of evaporating this juice so as to 

 separate it into sugar and molasses. 



Sorghum. Sorghum is another 

 member of the grass family which 

 has a sweet juice in its cells. Sor- 

 ghum thrives where it is too cool 

 and too dry for sugar cane. Its 

 juice is extracted and boiled down 

 to form sirup or molasses. By selec- 

 tion of seed from plants rich in 

 sugar, the per cent of sugar has been 

 largely increased. 



Sugar Beets. The sugar beet in- 

 dustry was developed in Europe by 

 selecting and cultivating beets so 

 as to increase the quantity of sugar 

 they contain. Small pieces of the 

 roots were tested, and those having 

 the largest amount of sugar were 

 planted for seed. Thus the quantity 



of sugar has been increased from eight to eighteen per cent. 

 Roots have been raised of which twenty-five per cent, one fourth 

 of the whole, was pure sugar. 



Within recent years the sugar beet industry has been introduced 

 into the United States. A section of the northern part of the 



