DATA RELATING TO SORGHUM AS A SUGAR-PRODUCING PLANT. 



The problem of the possible profitable production of sugar from sor- 

 ghum has occupied the attention of chemists, agronomists, and manu- 

 facturers for many years. 



I will not insist here on the immense advantages which would accrue 

 to American agriculture by the development of an indigenous sugar 

 industry. There is no true friend of our farming interests who does not 

 wish our sugar to be produced at home, and if sorghum can help to the 

 consummation of such a wish we ought to know it. 



A full discussion of these aspects of the subject can be found in my 

 presidential address before the Washington Chemical Society, delivered 

 on the 9th of December, 1886. T 



It seems to me that we have now reached a point in the study of the 

 problem of the production of sugar from sorghum where it is possible, 

 by a careful review of the ground already passed over, to secure an ac- 

 curate notion of the progress which has been made. 



It is to this task that I have devoted the present study. For con- 

 venience the study of the problems may be divided into three parts, viz : 

 (1) Chemical, (2) experimental, (3) practical. 



CHEMICAL. 



The amount of analytical work which has been done on sorghum in 

 this country is enormous. At most I can give only a summary of the 

 recorded results. 



This analytical work may be best studied by dividing it into two 

 groups, namely : (a) Work done by the Department of Agriculture and 

 (6) other work. 



(a) WORK DONE BY THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The first analyses of sorghum canes by the Department of Agriculture 

 were made by Dr. C. M. Wetherill in 1862. 



'Second Ann. Bulletin Washington. Chemical Society, pp. 11 et aeq. 



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