SORGHUM. 497 



In Tennessee, the nomanclature is shortened by all being 

 called " red," or " black," and "Chinese," or "African." 



Sorghum, submitted to a pressure of ten tons, will yield 

 about 60 per cent, of juice, leaving 40 per cent, of woody 

 fibre, gum, juices, etc. Of this 60 per cent., about 10 per 

 cent, is sugar, both cane and grape, or, if not 'reduced to 

 sugar, it will make about 25 per cenf. of syrup, or 15 per 

 cent, of the expressed juice. 



However, in fact, this amount varies very much, accord- 

 ing to the soil on which it is raised. On rich bottom land, 

 where the cane grows to be very tall and large, there is 

 more water and less sugar in the juice, while on poor, 

 sandy, dry land the proportion is much greater. In some 

 specimens of syrup, when boiled down thick and allowed 

 to stand, crystals of sugar will form all through it. These 

 crystals are in the form of a modified rhombic prism. But 

 in the generality of specimens, from the presence of an acid, 

 the cane sugar is converted into glucose and no manipula- 

 tion is sufficient to cause it to crystallize. A few years ago, 

 at one of the expositions held in the city of Nashville, ajar 

 of this sugar was on exhibition, and there is a fair specimen 

 now in the cabinet of this Bureau, and, as before stated, 

 some excellent specimens at Washington. Should an early 

 and cheap means be devised to secure rapid crystallization 

 the result will be to bring down the price of sugar. Mo- 

 lasses, which sold at one dollar per gallon, was brought, by 

 the introduction of sorghum syrup, down to twenty-five and 

 thirty cents. There is so little difference between this grape 

 and cane sugar, that it is to be hoped some process may yet 

 be invented by which the syrup can be crystalized at will. 

 The constituents are the same, only having one equivalent 

 more of hydrogen and oxygen than carbon. It is undoubt- 

 edly due to the presence of some acid, as cane sugar can be 

 converted into glucose, by the addition of acids, or by pass- 

 ing a stream of air through the boiling syrup. In this in- 

 ventive age the mind of man has only to be turned to this 

 subject and it will be done. 32 



