83 



plan of thoroughly equipped manufactories, in which the sorghum grown 011 neigh- 

 boring farms can be worked quickly and economically by skilled operatives. 



The result of the season's experiments is decidedly encouraging, considering the un- 

 favorable circumstances. There has been a drought of unprecedented severity and 

 length, so that the corn crop on the college farm was not more than one-quarter its 

 usual amount. And yet the results of sorghum growing on the same farm, as given 

 in the above table, are respectable. With a season having the average rain-fall a 

 crop weighing from two to three times as much as that of the present one may safely 

 be calculated on. 



In 1882 experiments were made on two plots on autumn and spring 

 plowed ground. Each plot was divided into sixteen sections, on which 

 different fertilizers were employed. 



The mean percentages of sucrose in the juice for the two plots are as 

 follows : l 



First plot 13.lt) 



Second plot. 12.2 



The season was again reported as unfavorable. 2 



The plants came up quickly and grew rapidly from the first, so that no special 

 trouble was experienced in hoeing or cultivating it. It came forward with strong and 

 stout canes until near the middle of August, when a very severe drought set in. The 

 growth of the cane was entirely stopped for some weeks, when it was about 6 feet 

 high. Finally stunted-looking seed-heads partially developed in irregular patches 

 and streaks over the field ; most of the seed was blasted, and many of the stalks failed 

 to head out. The height of the crop was 2 or 3 feet below the normal growth. When 

 the rains came in September new shoots forked out from the upper joints and unfolded 

 slender heads, but it was too late in the season, and no seeds ripened on them. 



We judge that the crop of cane was not half what it would have been in a favorable 

 season, and that of the seed not one-third of a full crop. The percentage of juice in 

 the canes was also much lower than is natural in properly-grown sorghum. 



The effects of the drought were irregular on the field, not following any of the lines 

 which marked the plots and fertilizers, so that wo can draw no satisfactory conclu- 

 sions from the experiments on fertilizers either in the production of cane and seed or 

 on the quality and amount of the juice or sugar. 



Our uniform course is to record our failures as well as our successes, and this is 

 published, though it is a disappointment and a failure which'we could not avoid. 



In 1883 the results of the experiments were still more encouraging. 



The means of the percentages of sucrose in the juice of sixteen 

 samples from as many different plots was 15.1 G. 3 



The average quantity of sugar produced per acre, based on the above 

 analyses, was 3,963 pounds. 



Some of the conclusions derived from the above set of experiments 

 are of a remarkable character. 4 



Even when a mill expresses from 50 to GO^er cent, of juice from stripped and topped cane, 

 it may yet leave more than one-half of the sugar in the bagasse. This fact can bo best 

 shown by an example. The cane on plot 11 contained 4,119 pounds of sugar per acre. 

 Of this the mill expressed 1,983 pounds, leaving in the bagasse 52 per cent, of the 

 sugar which the cane contained. This result is the most favorable in the experiment. 

 The other extreme is found on plot 10, where nearly 70 per cent, of the sugar was 



1 Third Annual Report New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, pp. 64, 65. 



*0p.ctf.,pp.61,62. 



'Fourth Annual Report New Jersey Experiment Station, p. 70. 



4 Op. cit., pp. 67, 68. 



