222 PLANT AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 
from the fields, or from protected parts of piles of cane 
kept for a day, showed a remarkably high percentage of 
sugar. 
On September 30th, 1 a sample of cane from the carrier 
showed: — 
Sucrose. 12 -39 per cent. 
Glucose. 3.76 “ 
Total solids. 17.80 “ 
Available sugar. 6.98 “ 
Such cane would yield 140 lbs. of sugar per ton. 
An October cane gave an average of 176.6 lbs. of sugar 
per ton. Dozens of samples of cane during the season would 
have given over 100 lbs. of sugar per ton. When it is remem¬ 
bered that sorghum cane can be grown and delivered at the 
factory for $2.00 a ton, the importance of these figures cannot 
be overestimated. If sorghum can be produced which will con¬ 
tain 5 per cent, of available sugar from the whole crop, the 
future of the industry is a most promising one. 
Until the variations of the percentage of sucrose in the juice 
can be controlled, sorghum cannot be considered a profitable 
crop for sugar production. 
The tendency of sorghum cane is to undergo rapid change. 
This changeable disposition of the sorghum, as compared to the 
sugar beet, and even to the tropical cane, is a serious fault. To 
overcome this characteristic of sorghum will require the most 
scientific agriculture and the researches of chemistry. Special 
experiments should be undertaken, which have in view the 
increase of the ratio of the sucrose to the other substances of 
the juice. “The great trouble is in the remarkable variation 
of the quantity of sugar in a field of sorghum plants. No esti¬ 
mate of the total yield can be gathered from the examination 
of one plant, as others in its immediate neighborhood might 
be found to be radically different. The obtaining of a uniform 
standard of high sucrose production by the sorghum cane will 
possibly take scientists years to accomplish.” 2 
1 Bui. No. 14, p. 15. 
2 H. W. Wiley, The Eighth Annual Meeting of the National Sugar Growers’ 
Association. St. Louis, Feb. 8th, 1887. 
