86 
STATE AGEICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 
Tifacture of unmistakable siigo.r v/ere heralded abroad and dem¬ 
onstrated before wondering conventions. But the war ended^ 
and with it the hope of making sorghum always successfully 
compete with the sugar-cane of the Soifth. Slowly the con¬ 
viction crept over the State, as crop after crop of seed failed to 
ripen, that the real habitat of the plant wms in lower latitudes; 
the promised refineries never came to the relief of the disap¬ 
pointed palates of fastidious consumers ; and the ten pounds 
of nice, dry, genuine sorghum sugar, for which this Society, 
through so many years, persistently offered a handsome pre¬ 
mium, never gladdened our eyes. 
Still, Sorghum has by no means been a miiliicaulis inovation. 
It came, as it were, providentially, j ust before all saccharine sup¬ 
plies from the south were cut off by the rebellion,and during that 
protracted struggle furnished our people with a very fair sub¬ 
stitute. Its cultivation involved no material outlay on the part 
of the farmer, except such as purchased machinery and appa¬ 
ratus for its manufacture ; and probably most of these, like the 
manufacturers of the mills, have been several times over re¬ 
imbursed from net profits on the business. Its importation 
into this country will ever be an occasion of congratulation^ 
In Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missonii and portions of several 
other states in ihat range, when its properties and better meth¬ 
ods of managing its juice come to be understood, it will con¬ 
tinue a boon to the fanning population. Nor will its culture 
be altogether abandoned in this State. Hundreds of farmers, 
who have acquired a fondness for its peculiar flavor, aitd who 
have the means of manufacture already, will deem it economy 
to raise a sufficiency for themselves and some of their neigh¬ 
bors, notwithstanding the reduced prices of imported syrups 
and sugars ; and when the means of impoving its quality are 
discovered the number of such may be still greater than 
now. 
HOF CULTURE, 
In the extent to which it is now being carried, is another 
inovation upon the old routine of Wisconsin farming that dates 
