FresruaAry 8, 1884. | 
‘Light and life,’ ‘ The plant calendar,’ ‘ From 
pole to equator,’ ‘ From sea-level to eternal 
snow,’ ‘What the forest tells of itself,’ 
‘Grapes and wine,’ ‘The rose,’ ‘ Insectivo- 
rous plants,’ ‘ Botanical studies on the sea- 
shore,’ ‘The world in a water-drop,’ ‘ Bac- 
teria,’ ‘ Invisible enemies in the air,’ ‘ Gardens 
in ancient and modern times.’ 
The lectures are written in an entertaining 
style, and vary in interest as little as the in- 
equality of the subjects will allow. The two 
on ‘Light and life’ and ‘ The cell state’ are 
especially happy, particularly the latter in an 
apt comparison of a plant to a state. 
The design of the book is laudable, and its 
execution admirable. We commend both as 
models to our American biologists and physi- 
cists, who owe it to the American public to 
provide better opportunities for a general ac- 
quaintance with scientific problems and meth- 
ods. 
REPORT ON SORGHUM-SUGAR. 
Investigation of the scientific and economic relations oy 
the sorghum-sugar industry ; being a report made 
in response to a request from the Hon. George 
B. Loring, U. S. commissioner of agriculture, by 
a committee of the National academy of sciences, 
November, 1882. Washington, Government, 
$G55. 152 p. 8°. 
A prRoBLEM, which, if not the most impor- 
tant, is certainly the most prominent, agricultu- 
ral problem of the day, is that of the profitable 
production of sugar from sorghum. The ex- 
periments made during the last few years at 
the U.S. department of agriculture and else- 
where haye attracted general attention, both 
on account of the interesting scientific questions 
involved, and still more because they promise 
to create a new branch of agricultural industry, 
and to greatly enlarge our domestic supply of 
sugar. 
The report of the committee of the National 
academy on this subject must prove very valu- 
able to all interested in the promotion of this 
infant industry, because it contains a very full 
summary, prepared by thoroughly competent 
and impartial persons, of all that has been ac- 
complished in this direction up to the date of 
the report, and thus collects in one publication 
information previously scattered through nu- 
merous state and other reports. ‘That the work 
has been well done is sufficiently guaranteed 
by the names of the committee. They were 
Prof. William H. Brewer, Ph. D., of the Shef- 
field scientific school; Prof. Charles F. Chand- 
ler, Ph.D., of Columbia college; Prof. S. W. 
SCIENCE. 
.many of the points just spoken of. 
161 
Johnson, M.A., of the Sheffield scientific 
schoolmeeeror, B. Silliman, M.A., M.D.. of 
Yale college ; Prof. J. Lawrence Smith, M.D., 
late of the University of Louisville; and also, 
not of the academy, Gideon E. Moore, Ph.D., 
of New York. Prof. C. A. Goessmann, of the 
Massachusetts agricultural college, was also a 
member of, and acted with, the committee until 
Sept. 15, 1882, when he resigned. 
The committee begins its report with several 
pages of citations from earlier (chiefly Ameri- 
can) investigations upon sorghum as a sugar 
producing plant, showing the conflicting opin- 
ions upon almost every essential point of the 
subject entertained by the authorities quoted. 
On such points as the kind of sugar present in 
the juice, the best varieties of sorghum, the 
proper time for harvesting and working, etc., 
diametrically opposite opinions, each by repu- 
table authorities, are quoted. 
This was the state of the question, when, in 
1878, the U.S. department of agriculture, by 
its chemist, Dr. Peter Collier, began its well- 
known investigations, which went far to decide 
This work 
the committee does not review in detail, but 
contents itself with a favorable criticism of the 
analytical methods employed, and with point- 
ing out the material value of the results and 
the need of further investigation. 
At the time when this report was prepared, 
the successful work of the department of agri- 
culture consisted chiefly of chemical examina- 
tions of sorghum-juice, attempts to produce 
sugar from it on a manufacturing scale having 
proved partial failures : the committee therefore 
closes its report with brief accounts of the re- 
sults of practical attempts to make sugar from 
sorghum. Among these are noted two failures, 
and seventeen cases of more or less pronounced 
success, several on a manufacturing scale. 
In an appendix are collected divers intexzest- 
ing papers bearing upon the subject of the re- 
port. Some of them present fuller details of 
experiments referred to in the report, and some 
contain accounts of later successes in sugar-pro- 
duction. This portion of the report concludes 
with a ‘ Bibliography of sorghum,’ which can- 
not fail to be of great value to investigators in 
this field. 
It is evident from the facts collected in this 
report, and from the experience since gained, 
that, with skill in working, sugar can be suc- 
cessfully made from sorghum. It is also equal- 
ly evident, that, without that skill and the 
proper appliances, failure is more probable than 
success. Sirup can easily be made from sor- 
ghum on a domestic scale, but not sugar. 
