48 



If a naturalist were seeking a plant whose record indicated that it 

 would yield readily to the influences of cultivation, a plant which might 

 be changed in its characteristics, he would select one showing just such 

 extreme variations as this, Iv is doubtless necessary only to reproduce 

 the conditions, whatever they may have been, under which the crop of 

 1884 was produced to reproduce like results. These conditions may be 

 no more difficult to attain than those which produce the average crop. 

 This branch of the subject invites study and experiment. The oppor- 

 tunity doubtless exists to build up the sugar-producing properties of 

 sorghum-making improvements not inferior to those by which the Euro- 

 peans have made the sugar-beet a most valuable source of sugar. 



In this connection, I can do no better than to produce and second the 

 remarks of Dr. Wiley, in his report for 1883, on Improvement by Seed 

 Selection. 



I am fully convinced that the Government should undertake the experiments which 

 have in view the increase of the ratio of sucrose to other substances in the juice. 

 These experiments, to be valuable, must continue under proper scientific direction for 

 a number of years. Tho cost will be so great that a private citizen will hardly be 

 willing to undertake the expense. 



The history of the improvement in the sugar beet should be sufficient to encourage 

 all similar eiforts with sorghum. 



The original forage beet, from which the sugar beet has been developed, contained 

 only 5 or 6 per cent, of sucrose. The sugar beet now will average 10 per cent, of 

 sucrose. It seems to me that a few years of careful selection may secure a similar 

 improvement in sorghum. 



It would be a long step toward the solution of the problem to secure a sorghum that 

 would average, field for field, 12 per cent, sucrose and only 2 per cent, of other sugars, 

 and with such cane the great difficulty would be to make sirup and not sugar. Those 

 varieties and individuals of each variety of cane which show the best analytical 

 results should be carefully selected for seed, and this selection continued until acci- 

 dental variations become hereditary qualities in harmouy with the well-knowa prin- 

 ciples of descent. 



If these experiments in selection could he made in different parts of the country, 

 and especially by the various agricultural stations and colleges, they would have 

 additional value and force. In a country whose soil and climate are as diversified as 

 in this, results obtained in one locality are not always reliable for another. 



If some unity of action could in this way be established among those-engaged in 

 agricultural research, much, time and labor would be saved and more valuable results 

 be obtained. 



A VALUABLE CONTENT OF SORGHUM CANE. 



The grape-sugar content of sorghum is very large. When freed from 

 such of the "not sugar" products as have an unpleasant taste, this con- 

 stitutes an elegant sirup constituent. It is composed chiefly of two 

 sugars, called, respectively, dextrose and levulose. The last is sweeter 

 than cane sugar. This grape sugar is that to which most sweet fruits 

 owe their sweetness, The large amount of it over 53 pounds to the 

 ton of caneis likely to be recognized in the near future a$ one of 

 most valuable contents of sorghum cane, 



