September 29, 1893.] 



SCIENCE. 



173 



Sorghum, the chemical constitution of its juice approach- 

 ing more closely that of the troj)ical sugar cane than any 

 other, the term corn cane here used to distinguish the 

 plant when in this condition of development will, I trust, 

 not seem to be misapplied. 



4. The utilization of the plant in this way is the most 

 thorough and joerfect possible, because it takes advantage 

 of the fact that the development may be so controlled as 

 to secure from the same individual plant at two 

 different periods of , its existence: first, the grain 

 product, when in its most nutritive and assimi- 

 lative condition to serve as feed for animals, or 

 as bread food, and second, and conditioned upon the first, 

 a matured condition of the highly organized substances 

 in the cells of the living stalk, and their safe storage there 

 for an indefinite time, a full crop of sugar being thus 

 easily attainable as the result. 



5. No risk is run by the grower in producing corn 

 cane, because it is at his option, up to an advanced stage 

 of its growth, to choose whether he shall harvest it as a 

 grain and sugar crop combined, or as ensilage simply, or 

 as the ordinary product, the hard ripe grain. 



6. To secure a healthy and luxuriant growth and a full 

 crop of any of these products the requirements as to climate, 

 soil, tillage, the use of fertilizers, etc., during the true grow- 



for ensilage alone, or for use as dried fodder, secured by 

 the timely removal of the ears and the curing of that part 

 of the crop separately, is of scarcely less general import- 

 ance than when sugar-growing is the main object. 



9. It is evident, also, that the full limit of this enrich- 

 ment has not yet been reached. The capacity of Indian 

 corn, for rapid improvement through judicious selection 

 and hybridization, gives promise of securing new races 

 possessing still more valuable qualities for sugar produc- 

 tion than are found in any now existing. 



10. Among the benefits which the establishment of the 

 sugar industry from maize will confer upon American 

 agriculture, a prominent one will be to chock over pro- 

 duction of the hard-ripened grain. When it is known 

 that from the same jjlaut equally valuable products in 

 other forms are regularly attainable, which, being substi- 

 tuted for the ordinary staple, will secure the benefits of a 

 wholesome limitation to the production of the latter, the 

 area devoted to the growing of the plant will profitably 

 be enlarged to any extent to meet the enormous capacity 

 of our western soils to produce it. 



In giving to the public these conclusions it is, perhaps, 

 scarcely necessary to add that the motive of this investi- 

 gation was simply to fix the value of maize, under the new 

 conditions, as a sugar-producing plant. 



Table: — Relative composition of the juice of "corn cane" and sugar cane. 



Indian Corn. 



of Early Growth. 



Saccharine Development. 



In early 

 In In roasting Ear 



Tassel. Silk. ear. removed. 



"Southern 

 Fodder.' 



Yellow 

 Dent. 



Golden 

 Beauty. 



East India Sugar Cane.* 



Carefully sampled 



good average cane. 



A ska Dist., Madras. 



(Gill.) 



54 days 2 feet 2 teet 



month after re- ^q^t ^^ * ^^^* next 



moval of ear. removed, top. middle, root. 



Louisiana Sugar Cane.t 



Magnolia Plantation. 



(Wiley.) 



Specific gravity. . 



Organic matter not sugar, and ash. 



^Gill's analysi.s 

 tU. S. Departn 



quui:;;d frojii Allen's Organic Analysis, Vol. 

 ent of Agriculture, Bulletin 18.— Wiley. (188 



ing period, are almostprecisely the same in all cases. No new 

 system of agriculture is necessaiy to be inaugurated to 

 make sugar-growing at a profit a success, no new plant is 

 to be acclimatized before its merits can be tested, but fol- 

 lowing a system of culture with which we are familiar, mak- 

 ing one simple but radical change only in the routine, we 

 have practically a new plant in the new uses that it serves. 



7. It follows from this that the cost of sugar-growing 

 from this new source, ought to fall much below the aver- 

 age cost of producing it from any other plant. This is 

 still more evident if we consider that the sugar crop from 

 corn is capable of being brought to full maturity in a 

 relatively short period, as compared with either that from 

 the sugar cane or the beet; that a ton of trimmed corn- 

 cane, bearing at least as high a sugar percentage as the 

 sugar beet, can be grown here at about one-half the cost 

 of a ton of beets, not counting the immature grain and 

 fodder ensilage produced along with it. The latter rep- 

 resents an added value almost equal to that of the sugar 

 for which the sugar cane furnishes no equivalent what- 

 ever, and neither the beet nor sorghum any that will bear 

 favorable comparison with it. 



8. The enrichment of the juice of the com plant grown 



Disparagement of the earnest efforts that have for many 

 years been made, and are still being made, to make beet 

 sugar growing in this country successful, has not been 

 thought of. But it must be remembered that every in- 

 dustry dependent upon plant growth and development 

 for its existence must have due respect to the peculiar 

 conditions of climate and soil prevailing in the country 

 where it is proposed to establish it. It is now well 

 known that the climatic limits of successful maize-grow- 

 ing on this continent are very wide, and those restricting 

 the beet for employment in sugar manufacture are quite 

 narrow. Here, as elsewhere, the foundations of success 

 are laid in natural laws. And one thing seems clear: the 

 typical sugar plant for America must be one possessing 

 the robust health and all the qualities which are supposed 

 to spring from being "native and to the manor born," 

 and which, while meriting and needing, perhaps, the fos- 

 tering care of the home government as the basis of a new 

 industry, at the start, yet must prove its ability to stand 

 alone, unsupported by a bounty or any other merely 

 adventitious aid. 



