50 



AT MANHATTAN. 



It will be proper here to give a brief account, also, of experiments 

 similar to the above made at the Kansas State Agricultural College at 

 Manhattan, under the able direction of Prof. G. H. Failyer. The lines 

 of work were practically the same as those indicated for the station at 

 Sterling. The State station, however, could not be expected to enter 

 into the work on so extensive a scale as the Department does at Ster- 

 ling, inasmuch as a large portion of the energies of the State station 

 must necessarily be directed toward the development of other forms of 

 agriculture. 



The varieties which were tested at the station at Manhattan were 

 thirty in number, including all the leading varieties grown at Sterling. 

 One thousand three hundred single stalks were examined and sixty-six 

 polarizations made. The results of the experiments at Manhattan sta- 

 tion showed that the Collier cane was the richest in cane sugar and the 

 lowest in reducing sugar. The highest percentages of sugar observed 

 in the juices were 18.95 in Collier, 18.25 in Colniau, and 18.59 in Kan- 

 sas Orange. 



Experiments were also tried with fertilizers, but 110 deductions can 

 be drawn with certainty from the first year's work, with the exception of 

 the fact that Chile saltpeter seemed to increase the quantity of sucrose 

 in the juice. The season of 1891 is said to have been the most favor- 

 able for sorghum of any in the past eight years, the growing part of the 

 season being well supplied with rain and followed by a rather dry fall 

 favorable to the maturation of a sorghum rich in cane sugar. The 

 quality of sorghum grown at the station in previous years has never 

 approached the excellence attained by the crop of 1891. Part of this 

 improvement may be, and probably is, due to seed selection j but the 

 propitious season is credited with most of the increase in sugar content. 



AT PATTERSON, LA. 



Interesting and valuable experiments in sorghum culture were 

 also made by Mr. Wibray J. Thompson, on Mr. Daniel Thompson's 

 Calumet plantation, Patterson, La., during the past season, being a 

 continuation of the same line of experiments carried on by him in pre- 

 vious years. An effort was made even more earnestly than in former 

 years in the selection of seed for propagation from canes of high value, 

 and little or no time was given to investigating canes which did not 

 possess an important bearing upon the main work of improving the 

 varieties. Such matters as tonnage, proper fertilizers, and the like are 

 certainly of the highest importance in their influence on the final suc- 

 cess or failure of the plant as an economic source of sugar. It is pri- 

 marily necessary to secure a plant which shall assure reasonably good 

 returns for the expense of its proper cultivation. Mr. Thompson has 

 kindly placed the data of the season's work at the disposal of the Depart- 

 ment, and it will be found as a part of this report. 



