" ... "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.
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