Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 25.djvu/645

Rh manufacture of sugar from the sugar-cane, in this country, to a very limited area, and to especially favorable seasons. This fact is emphasized and proved by reference to statistics which show that the amount of sugar produced in Louisiana in one year is frequently nearly twice as great as that obtained the next season.

Obviously, if it is desirable to produce our own sugar, the tropical sugar-cane can not be regarded as the chief source of supply, and we must place our dependence upon some plant better adapted to our varied soils and limited rainfall.

The sugar-beet has much to commend it; it is successfully raised in France, Germany, and Austria, and furnishes, at the present time, thirty per cent of the sugar consumed by civilized nations. But the sugar-beet requires special soil, special fertilizers, skillful cultivation, and, above all, an abundance of rain, which must come at just the right time to be of the greatest service. These conditions are well understood in Europe, and the tracts of country where beets may be profitably grown for sugar are known as "beet-sugar belts" upon the agricultural maps. Investigation has shown that the American beet-sugar belt is confined to a comparatively small portion of certain Northern and Middle States. It is possible that an important fraction of our sugar may yet be obtained from this source; but it is doubtful whether we should entertain hopes that this may ever be our chief dependence.

If, then, this country is to produce its own sugar, it is evident that some plant must be selected which, in one or more varieties, is adapted to our widely varied conditions. It must mature in the temperate Northern States as well as in the more genial climate of Southern California and the States bordering on the Gulf of Mexico. It must be easily cultivated—a plant of rapid growth, which, when mature, does not deteriorate until the season of severe frosts, thus insuring a long "working period," in which it may be converted into marketable sugar and molasses. Above all, it must furnish a juice rich in sugar, while containing a minimum of impurities.

It is claimed, by those who have given this sugar problem a very considerable amount of study, that in the better varieties of sorghum many or all of the above conditions are satisfied, and that, with intelligent culture and manufacturing methods, this country may not only produce all its own sugar, but may do its share toward supplying the ever-increasing demand abroad. These claims, if well supported, are deserving of careful study by all who desire to see the agricultural and manufacturing resources of this country more fully developed than at present.

The sorghum-plant (Sorghum saccharatum) belongs to the great family of grasses (Graminaceæ), and it may be termed a second-cousin to the tropical sugar-cane (Saccharum officinarum) on the one hand, and ordinary Indian corn (Zea mays) on the other. In some of its