NORTHERN SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



and strike vacunm pans, witli their pumps and ai)purtenances. Then 

 the sugar wagons and centrifugals are not to be forgotten. If animal 

 char is employed, it requires additional and expensive apparatus. 

 Counting every expense except the cost of laud, the capital required to 

 work 10,000 tons of cane per season will not fall much short of 875,000. 

 It may exceed that sum if strong, permanent buildings are erected. 



REVIEW OF THE SORGHUM INDUSTRY DURING 1883. 



EXPERIMENTS MADE BY DEPARTMEN I OF AGRICULTURE. 



(1) Field of cane 7iear Was]iingt07i. 



Following is the report^of Mr. Nesbit, who had charge of the field: 



Department of Agriculture, 



irashingion, Decemher 3, 188-1. 

 Dear Sir: Your letter of Noveniber 23 to Hon. Georg • B. Lorinijj, Cornniissioner, 

 reqnestiug for insertion in the forthcoming rejiort ou sorghum a report on the folh)w- 

 ing items: 



(1) Plowing and preparing ground ; 



(2) Fertilizer employed, when and how applied ; 



(3) Date and method of planting ; 



(4) Cultivation ; 



(5) Other items of interest in connection with the crop ; " 



Having heen referred to me, I take pleasure in furnishing the desired information. 



(1) A contract for the plowing w^as given on the 27th day of March, ref[uiring that 

 " the ground shall be plowed to a uniform depth of 5 inches, and a subsoil [dow shall 

 be run in each furrow to the uniform depth of 6 inches below the bottom of the fur- 

 row." Other stipulations were made requiring the work to be well done, and finished 

 before the first day of May. The weather proved exceedingly unfavorable, so" tliat 

 much of the time the ground was too wet to be worked, and the plowing was not 

 completed until May 18. A drag-harrow, disk-harrow, and clod-crusher were em- 

 ployed to reduce the ground to good tilth. 



(2 and 3) The seed "was planted and fertilizer applied with a grain-drill having a 

 fertilizer attachment. Two of the eight tubes, 3| feet apart, were used for seed, and 

 the same, together with one more on each side of both seed-tubes, six in all, were used 

 for the fertilizer. The other tubes were entirely shut off. The planting was begun 

 on the 14th of May and finished on the last of May, much rain intervening and pre- 

 venting a more rapid prosecution of the work. The fertilizer wa- applied at the rate 

 of .500 pounds per acre. An analysis by Mr. Clifford Richardson, assistant chemist, 

 showed the following constituents, viz : 



Soluble phosphoric acid per cent.. 6. 55 



Reverted ^ do 3. d5 



Available •. do 10.40 



Total : do 11.82 



Nitrogen . . do 1.79 



Equivalent tc» ammonia do 2. 17 



Commercial value 830.50 



(4) The first cultivation after planting was broadcast with a smoothing harrow. 

 After this the sorghum was thinned to a stand of about 12 stalks to a yard by cross- 



