87 



vious disappointments with new-fanjjled notions, wo concluded to test it cautiously 

 and moderately. Passing by it one day, when the seeds were nearly or quite 

 ripe, \vo concluded to test the sweetness of the stalk; so cutting a moderate-sized 

 cuno and peeling its hard outside coat, we found an exceedingly sweet and pleasant 

 flavor, wholly and entirely unlike anything of the corn-stalk family that we had ever 

 tasted. It was, in fact, ready-made candy. 



" Fully satisfied hy this time that it was valuable, at least for the production of 

 soiling, forage, and dried fodder, we next turned our attention to its saccharine prop- 

 erties, and fortunately induced our friend, Dr. Robert Battey, of Rome, Ga., who was 

 at that time pursuing the study of experimental chemistry in the well-known labora- 

 tory of Professor Booth, of Philadelphia, to test it. As the result of his experiment 

 Dr. Battey sent us three small phials, one containing a fine sirup, one a very good 

 sample of crude brown sugar, and the other a very good sample of crystallized sugar. 

 This we believe to bo the first crystallized sugar made in the United States from the 

 juice of the sorgho-sucrd." 



Experiments were made by Joseph S. Lovering at Oakhill, near Phila- 

 delphia, in 1857, in the manufacture of sugar from sorghum. The first 

 experiment was made September 30. In view of the voluminous liter- 

 ature on this subject in the thirty years that have passed since this ex- 

 periment was made, I give Mr. Lovering's own description of it: 1 



The fact of the presence of crystallizable sugar in the cane being established, I pro- 

 ceeded to cut and grind 20 feet of a row, and passed the thirty canes which it pro- 

 duced three times through the rollers ; about one-fourth of the seed had changed to a 

 dark glistening brown color, but was still milky ; the remainder was quite green ; 

 ground six to eight of the lower joints, which together yielded 3| gallons of juice, 

 weighing 9 Beaume ; neutralized the free acid by adding milk of lime ; clarified with 

 eggs and boiled it down to 240 F. 



This first experiment looked discouraging and unpromising at every step; its 

 product was a very dark, thick, viscid mass, apparently a caput mortuvm ; it stood six 

 days without the sign of a crystal, when it was placed over a flue and kept warm 

 four days longer, when I found a pretty good crop of soft crystals, the whole very 

 similar to the " melada" obtained from Cuba, but of darker color. 



Lovering's fourth experiment was made on one fiftieth of an acre. It 

 yielded 18.56 pounds of sugar and 23.73 pounds molasses. 2 



Calculated to 1 acre this gives 928 pounds sugar and 98.87 gallons 

 molasses. 



A foot-note informs us: 3 



Neither the scales in which this juice was weighed nor the quart measure in which 

 it was measured were sufficiently delicate or accurate to give precise results, and as 

 Ihey form the basis of these calculations, the percentages are probably not absolutely 

 exact, but they are sufficiently so for all practical purposes. 



Three other experiments were made by Mr. Lovering, but with results 

 less favorable than No. 4. 



The fashion in excuses for failure in sorghum-sugar making was early 

 set by Mr. Lovering. 



In the fifth experiment 4 he observed "a very sudden and unfavorable 

 change in the working of the juice," which he ascribes to the weather 

 li becoming and continuing very warm." 



The sixth experiment, November 27, 6 was made after warm Indian summer weather, 

 with heavy rains, also very cold weather, making ice 2 inches in thickness, thermome- 



1 Op. cit. p. 7. 3 Op. cit. p. 17. 6 Op. cit., pp. 20-21. 



*Op. cit., p. 10. 0;i. rif.,p. 19. 



