


26 Report OF THE | Dirzoron OF ‘THE 
But we presume few have Mopt up with, the recent progress : 
of sugar manufacture from another plant, sorghum, to which it 
is desirable to call attention. Thus far no experiments have been ~ 
made in this State with sorghum which by the wildest imagina- 
tion could be called scientific, looking to it as a possible source of 
our sugar supply. 
Several years ago Dr. Goessmann, the director of the Massa- 
chusetts Agricultural Experiment Station at Amherst, Massachu- 
setts, in a report which was published in the transactions of the 
New York Agricultural Society, said : 
“When the beet root was first cultivated for the manufacture of 
sugar, it contained only from seven to eight per cent of sugar, but 
by the application of proper care to the cultivation and to selecting 
the best specimens for seed, the percentage was increased to from 
eleven to twelve in some species. Should it be possible to increase ~ 
the percentage of the sugar in the sorghum in the same ratio, its 
successful cultivation would become an accomplished fact; and our 
farmers, aided by their superior skill, more perfect machinery and 
many other advantages. afforded by this country, would be able to 
compete successfully with the planters of the West Indies.” 
The American Grocer, of New York, in an editorial in its issue 
of November 11, 1891, says: 
‘We believe if private capital could be more extensively employed, 
and the formation of stock companies by adventurers who are less 
interested in sorghum than in making money by selling stock, done 
away with, and sorghum sugar manufacture would soon become a 
great national industry. 
The National Provisioner, of New York, under date of Decem- 
ber 5, 1891, says, editorially : 
“There seems to be no reason,” says Secretary Rusk, “why we should 
not look forward with confidence to the day when the $100,000,000 
paid by Americans to foreign producers for sugar shall be turned into 
- the pockets of our own people!” “Very true, Mr. Secretary,’ adds the 
editor, “and others besides you will be grievously disappointed if the. 
_ process of ane sugar from sorghum proves nee short of 
absolute success.’ 
A letter to this Station from one in charge of sorghum experi- 4 
ments under the United Biptce Department of Agriculture in 
_ Kansas, says: 

