In his remarks on the synopsis of one hundred and eleven experiments, made at Washington, he says:  “As may be noticed, thirty-five of them (111) would yield zero.  If we take the average of the hundred and eleven experiments, we find as a yield 4.5 per cent., which result cannot possibly be practically accepted.  In other words, our government, notwithstanding the favorable conditions under which they were made, prove that the sorghum utilization is fallacy in every sense of the word.” ...  “If sorghum is to be grown for its sirup, or for fodder, it will evidently render excellent service.”  It seems that less than four per cent. of crystallizable sugar in the sorghum juice will not pay the cost of making sugar from it, as it will not crystallize in a reasonable time, on account of the glucose in the juice, which, with the other impurities, will prevent the ready crystallization of four or five times their own weight of sucrose.

From the early history of sorghum, it appears that it was known as sorgo in the sixteenth century, while twenty or thirty varieties were known under different names in Egypt, Arabia, and Africa.  Some of the names are, Chinese sugar cane, (sorgo), India cane, emphee or Coffers’ bread, paindes anges, etc.

The later history of it shows that in 1850, Count Montigny sent the first samples from China to Europe.  It had been used in the former country for thousands of years for the manufacture of red dye.  The seeds were afterward sold in France for a franc each.

A variety came later to this country from Africa, through the agency of an Englishman named Wray, to whom is charged the effects of the delusive experiments of trying to make crystallized sugar from its juice, which have been going on in this country for twenty years.  But two varieties of sorghum now remain, known as the Chinese and African types.  Of all the other sugar plants, none except the maple tree (besides the sugar cane and the beet) seem to have yielded sugar to pay the cost of manufacture.  The maple tree has yielded a total of 41,000,000 pounds in 1877.  But as an industry by itself, it appears to be unprofitable, and maple sugar must be, and generally is, sold at a higher price per pound than cane sugar; moreover, it has not the qualities that are required in a general sweetner for culinary purposes.

The variety of sugar plant called amber cane is not very clearly defined, but it may be taken, from the description of the juice as to crystallizing qualities, as no better sugar producer than sorghum.  It, with sorghum, is classed as a sub-variety of sugar cane, which will yield sirup and fodder, but will not crystallize under several months’ time, and even then in but small percentage.

On the whole it appears, as before stated, that the sugar beet is the only practicable source of sugar for the Northern States, which, as experimentally shown, can be raised at a profit of forty six dollars per acre, against twenty dollars per acre, the profit of sugar making from cane in Louisiana.  Upon this showing several beet sugar factories have been started in the United States and in Canada, and their products are said to be satisfactory, and have been sold at a profit in competition with imported beet sugar.