326 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



very incomplete apparatus. Prof. Henze of Grignon, France, 

 thinks that its full proportion of saccharine matter can not be ob- 

 tained without the employment of hydraulic power. Any com- 

 parative statement therefore, of the yields of the Sorgho and cane 

 juiceSj should not be made until we can subject the former to the 

 machinery used in crushing the latter, and get our results under 

 similar conditions of manufacture. 



From all parts of the Union there come to us statements of the 

 successful production of syrup and sugar from the Sorgho sap. It 

 has been obtained by various methods. One person pounds his 

 stalks with a rolling-pin, boils them and evaporates the excess 

 water ; another crushes them with an ordinary grocer's sugar- 

 mill, twists them and rinses out the sap, from which pure syrup 

 is obtained by boiling it in a sauce pan; still another cuts the 

 stalks into small pieces, which he boils in water without any pre- 

 paratory crushing or bruising ; another makes use of a pair of 

 horizontal rollers, geared to an equal speed, driven by two mules. 

 But, vaj-ious as are these methods, they all eventuate in establish- 

 ing the absolute presence of syrup in the Sorgho sap in each of 

 these widely separated parts of the Union. 



The quality of syrup and sugars obtained from it, will necessa- 

 rily vary with the greater or less care and experience employed 

 in their manufacture. We have received a present of three gal- 

 lons of fine syrup from Col. Peters, which unfortunately had 

 become scorched in boiling. What was made by ourselves for 

 samples was better — equal, we think, to maple syrup. 



Gov. Hammond of South Carolina, thinks the younger canes 

 richer in saccharine principle than the older ones; but the expe- 

 rience of Prof. Henze in France, and our own at the Farm School, 

 indicate the extreme richness in sugar to be attendant upon the 

 full maturity of the seeds. If the canes are allowed to remain 

 uncut for some time after the seeds have turned red and passed 

 the milk state, a smaller quantity per cent will be obtained. 



The Zooloo Cafifres increase the sweetness of the sap by cutting 

 off the tops just as the seed heads begin to show themselves. This 

 practice we have been accustomed to in the previous attempts to 

 make sugar from sweet corn, and was successfully practiced by 

 Prof. ISIapes at the time when Mr. Ellsworth was calling public 

 attention to the subject. 



