SORGHUM SUGAR. 



The Sugar from Sorghum Its History, etc. 



IN the prehistoric ages attempts were made to manu- 

 facture sugar from sorghum. In the histories of 



Egypt, Arabia, etc. .mention is made of the Emphee 

 and African types. Of these we have, first, the early 

 Sorgo ; second, the white Emphee (or the Nee-a-za-na), 

 and on the other hand the black Emphee; also 

 the red Emphee (or Shla-yoo-va) and the Liberian. 

 Besides these we have no less than twenty or thirty 

 other varieties. The name of sorgo was given in 

 1542, and mention is made of its having existed in 

 the East Indies during the sixteenth and seventeenth 

 centuries. Numerous essays were written by the 

 botanists of that period regarding this plant and its 

 varieties ; and from the earliest day down to the 

 present, various names have been given, as Sorgo, or 

 Chinese Sugar Cane, India Cane, Emphee, or Coffers' 

 Bread, Pain-des Anye*, etc. 



In 1850 Count Montigny sent the first samples of 

 sorghum of a Chinese variety to Europe (that people 

 having used it for thousands of years for the manu- 

 facture of a red dye), and exhibited it to the Geographi- 

 cal Society in Paris. Seeds were subsequently sold to 

 Vilmorin & Co. at twenty cents each ; and some of 

 another variety were brought to this country by 

 Leonard Wray, an English gentleman. The type he 



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