110 



With such cane juices, although they are not as pure as the average 

 sugar-cane juice in Louisiana, it would not be difficult, in my opinion, 

 to make sugar profitably. The data which I give are easily duplicated 

 iii those of former years, but this point is so well settled that I will not 

 dwell longer on it here. 



In contrast with this I will cite an equal number of analyses made in 

 the same circumstances : l 



It seems almost incredible that two sets of analyses so entirely different 

 in their results could have been made on samples taken in identically the 

 same manner. This remarkable fact discloses the great difficulty which 

 the sugar maker working on sorghum has to encounter, viz, the unre- 

 liability of his raw material. 



This difference between seven of the best analyses and seven of the 

 poorest ones, made during the same season, is not more remarkable, 

 however, than the differences between two sets of such experiments 

 made under similar conditions by the New Jersey station. 



In the data already quoted we find : 



These two illustrations set forth in a most striking form the tendency 

 to acute and extensive variations which the sorghum plant has shown 

 ever since its introduction into this country. 



The worker in sugar cane and sugar beets is reasonably sure of his 

 material. What it is to-day it will likely be to-morrow and so continue 

 sensibly until the end of the season. Unhappily the sorghum-sugar 

 worker has no such assurance. The same variety of cane, in the same 

 degree of maturity, will show the most surprising differences in the 

 sugar content of its sap. 



Prof. Hippolyte Leplay has noticed this variation especially, from 

 year to year, and has ascribed it to the process of degeneration. He 

 says : 2 



The culture and distillation of sorghum cane had given such important results in 

 Algiers that Mr. Hardy, director of the Central Government nursery at Algiers, an- 

 nounced, as results of his experiments, that from 1 hectare (2.47 acres) of sorghum, 



1 Luc. cit. 



2 MS. to author, n. f> fit ae,a. 



