1879-1 
The Science of Agriculture. 
355 
VII. THE SCIENCE OF AGRICULTURE. 
t T is now, we suppose, universally admitted that agricul- 
ture, in order to be progressive and profitable, must be 
conduced on scientific principles. To attain this end 
and to meet the demands of an increasing population the 
United States Government has for a long time included a 
Department of Agriculture, the main objeCl of which is 
“ the introduction of all the productions of the earth that 
can be grown in any part of the country, and to encourage 
by every means that diversity of production which is at once 
the safety and the wealth of the nation.” From the Prefa- 
tory Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for 1878 
we learn that experiments were made during last season on 
the growth of different varieties of sugar cane. As far as 
the experiments go a variety of cane from Jamaica, called 
the “ Salangore,” is shown to be worthy of extensive intro- 
duction and trial. The attention of the Commissioner has, 
however, of late been more especially given to the question 
of producing large supplies of sugar from sorghum and 
maize. He procured as much as possible of the pure well- 
cured seed of a variety of sorghum called the “ Minnesota 
Early Amber,” and distributed the same in every Congres- 
sional district in the United States. The results of this 
distribution have been most favourable, and the variety has 
yielded everywhere a large amount of rich saccharine juice, 
which under proper treatment gives excellent sugar and 
syrup, the yield being from 120 to 250 gallons of heavy 
syrup to the acre. It is proposed another season to make 
experiments with the different varieties of maize and 
sorghum, and to ascertain the different modes of cultivation 
and the stage of growth at which the production of sugar is 
at its maximum, in order that with as little delay as possible 
the country may be prepared with all necessary data to enter 
intelligently upon this new industry. 
The great drawback to the work of the Department seems 
to be the want of a larger chemical laboratory with a suffi- 
cient appropriation to meet the expenses of the additional 
force that will be necessary to carry forward investigations 
on a larger scale than the present laboratory and appliances 
will permit. With the facilities of the existing laboratory 
much information which skilful chemical analysis can only 
