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CONCLUSION. SUMMARY OF RESULTS ALREADY OBTAINED AT THE DEPARTMENT OF AaRIGULTURE IN WASHINGTON, D. C., AND ELSEWHERE IN 1HE UNITED STATES, IN THE PROD VCTION OF SUGAR AND MOLASSES FROM SORGHUM AND THE STALKS OF MAIZE* The Committee find, as the result of their investigation, by all the data which have come before them, as well as those obtained by the Department of Agriculture during the years from 1878 to 1882, both inclusive, and those derived from other parties in different sections of the United States, that the following points are established by an amount of investigation in the laboratory, and of practical experience in the field and factory, which have rarely been devoted to the solution of any industrial problem. The more important and well-established results are here enumerated, and are followed by a statement of certain practical and scientific points which still remain for future inquiry. A.âOF THE POINTS ALREADY SETTLED. 1.âTHE PRESENCE OF SUGAR IN THE JUICES OF SOEGHUM AND MAIZE STALKS. From records examined by this Committee, it appears that, during the three years prior to 1882, there have been made at the Department of Agriculture almost four thousand five hundred chemical analyses of the juices of about forty varieties of sorghum and of twelve varieties of maize. These analyses have shown the constitution of the juices of each variety at the successive stages in the development of the grow- ing plant. They not only confirm the well-known fact of the presence of sugar in the juices of these plants in notable quantity, but they also establish beyond cavil, what seems surprising to those who have not examined the facts, that the sorghum particularly, holds in its juices, when taken at the proper stage of development, about as much cane- sugar as the best sugar-cane of tropical regions. An examination of the analytical tables in the reports of Dr. Collier, synopses of which follow, will show that the juices of sorghum in cer- tain exceptional, but not isolated, cases were remarkable for the amount of cane-sugar they contained, viz: Of true crystallizable sugar in the juiceâ Per oeat 5 analyses of five varieties gave over 19 3 analyses of 17 varieties gave over 18 79 analyses of 23 varieties gave over 17 152 analyses of 30 varieties gave over _ 16 * Even at the risk of repeating some statements already made in the earlier por- tions of this report, the Committee consider it is better to review systematically in this summary the whole ground they Have gone over. 43
