THE CHINESE SUGAR-CANE. 69 



columns of the Intelligencer and other channels, 

 exciting the scepticism of many, and even the 

 derision of some, but, fortunately, awakening 

 the curiosity and enterprise of discerning and 

 intelligent agriculturists in various sections of 

 the United States. We have now the gratifi- 

 cation of realizing the happy results of the 

 investigations and labors of this latter class in the 

 successful cultivation, it is hoped and believed, of 

 one of the most valuable products of the soil that 

 has ever engaged the attention of the husband- 

 man, — a product which there are well-grounded 

 reasons for assuming will, of itself, in a brief 

 period, more than recompense all the pecuniary 

 aid and labor that have been bestowed upon the 

 Avhole subject of agriculture by our government, 

 in the introduction of a plant that may be propa- 

 gated with advantage in every locality in the 

 Union, that will provide an essential aliment and 

 a luxury to every family at an exceedingly low 

 cost, and that may before long enable us to 

 export to various portions of the world an article 

 of merchandise that we now import to the amount 

 of nearly fifteen millions of dollars a year. It is 

 a singular and gratifying coincidence that the 

 introduction of this plant, and the discovery of its 

 great excellence and adaptation to the soil and 



