64 



Early Orange Seed hard. Caiie stands up well. 



Collier Seed, mostly in milk and dough. Cane very tall, but stands up well. Very 

 green. 



Colman Seed mostly hard, very few being in dough. Cane stands straight and 

 strong. 



Australian Seed hard. Cane had lain cut in sun from morning till 3 p. m; leaves 

 wilted. 



No. 161 Seed apparently ripe. Cane large, fine-looking, and stands up well. 

 Leaves very green. 



No. 160 Seed mostly hard, leaves green. Canes tall and slender, somewhat 

 tangled. 



No. 91 Seed apparently ripe, blades green. Canes tall, slender, of uneven height 

 and standing well 



No. 126 Seed ripe, leaves very green. Cane quite slender, standing well. 



No. 112 Seed ripe, leaves very green. Cane short and stocky. 



Planter*' Friend Seed mostly hard, but some in dough. Cane very vigorous; 

 leaves green. 



India and Orange Seed mostly hard, but some in dough. Leaves very green. 

 Cane vigorous and stocky. 



Ubchlana Seed half in dough ; leaves quite green. Cane fine and stocky. 



CULTURAL WORK AT CALUMET (PATTERSON, LA.) 

 [Conducted under the direction of Mr. WIBRAY J. THOMPSON, by Mr. P. E. COOMBS.] 



The experimental cultivation of sugar-producing varieties of sorghum 

 cane, the results of which for the seasons of 1889 and 1890 have already 

 been published, was continued in 1891, with the employment of similar 

 methods of planting, of agricultural treatment, and of chemical exam- 

 ination. 



Effort was concentrated even more than in former years upon the 

 selection of seed for propagation from canes of high value, and little or 

 no time was given to investigating questions which did not possess an 

 immediate bearing upon the main work of improvement of varieties. 

 Such matters as tonnage, appropriate fertilizers, and the like are cer- 

 tainly of the highest importance in their influence upon the final suc- 

 cess or failure of the plant as an economic source of sugar, but it is 

 primarily necessary to acquire a sorghum which shall insure reasonably 

 good returns for the expense of its proper cultivation. And, having 

 gained that point, its agricultural needs would be more properly the 

 province of State experiment stations to discover than of individual 

 planters, who are generally quite too busily occupied in the practice to 

 afford much time to the theory of agronomy. 



Recognizing, however, the need of establishing for how long a period 

 the more valuable varieties of sorghum can be trusted to furnish, con- 

 tinuously, canes of high purity and sucrose after a satisfactory condi- 

 tion in these regards has been reached during the plant's growth, as 

 well as the value of analyses of average samples in the comparison of 

 varieties, a limited number of such was chosen and plots of large size 

 were planted, intended to furnish average samples unvitiated by any 

 culling out of canes for seed selection. All the average samples ana- 

 lyzed were drawn from these plots, and none of the seed selection plots 

 were used for any work besides analyses of single canes, 



