AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 399 



90 years of age, Cornelius Baker, Mr. Swan, Mr. Stacey, John 

 W. Chambers, C. C. Parsons of Feltonville, Mass., Mr. Pardee, 

 Judge Scoville, George E. Waring, Jr., Dr. Waterbury, Mr. John 

 L. Brower, Dr. Wellington, Mr. Henry of Flushing, and others 

 —63 in all. 



Hon. R. S. Livingston in the chair. Henry Meigs, Secretary. 



The Secretary read the following articles translated from 

 works received by the Institute since the last meeting, viz : 



[Bulletin Meiisuel de la Societe Imperialo Zoologique D'Acclimatation.] 



We find that the Chinese sugar cane will not flourish in our 

 Algeria without irrigation, requiring much trouble. It will take 

 the place of sugar beet, for that does not thrive in a hot country. 

 The sugar beet yields not over eight to ten per cent of sugar, and 

 cannot compete with the cane, which yields from sixteen to twenty 

 per cent of sugarj and the juice of the sugar beet gives but three 

 to four per cent of alcohol, while the Sorgho gives from six to 

 ten per cent of excellent alcohol, suited to all industrial and 

 economical uses. This plant has but just appeared above the 

 agricultural horizon, but recommends itself by its precious 

 qualities. The seeds of it yield alcohol like other cereals, yield- 

 ing 24 70-10:) per cent of its weight. At maturity this plant 

 shows on its surface a wax efflorescence like some of the varieties 

 of common sugar cane. This is a true vegetable wax; it is dry, 

 and can be pulverized; melts at 90'^ Centigrade equla to 193^ of 

 Fahrenheit. When mixed with tallow^ it makes candles which give 

 a very brilliant light. An acre wall yield nearly one hundred 

 pounds of this wax. Bees- wax is worth about thirty cents a 

 pound average. The Sorgho Sucre will acquire importance. 



In Algeria the plants are perennial, new shoots giving up from 

 them in the third year; but it is doubtlul wdiether this will 

 prove an advantage over annual planting. In order to obtain two 

 crops in one year, cut off" the canes before they form seeds, and 

 the under growth will be good feed for stock. 



This very valuable plant was brought into Italy three hundred 

 years ago, probably Venetian or Genoese, at about the commence- 

 ment of their commercial development. About the year 1500, 

 there was quite a considerable cultivation there of this Chinese 

 sugar, but whether they failed in their efforts to obtain sugar 

 from it for want of proper methods, or because the sort they had 

 was not as rich in sugar as that we now havfe, its cultivation 

 was abandoned. The botanic garden of Toulon long possessed in 

 its school specimens of it. Mr. Roberts, then director of the 



