unstripped cane to the acre, equal to 17 tons of stripped cane ready for crushing. On two tons of this I experimented, as I shall afterwards describe.

Mr. William Johns, writing on 28th March, 1882, reports to me as follows regarding the growth of Early Amber Sorghum at Te Rahu, near Te Awamutu:—“On the 25th of October, 1881, I planted out the greater portion of a packet of seed of the above received from you through Mr. Lavers.

“It was planted on fair land, manured with bone-flour at the rate of about 5 cwt. per acre. The seed grew well until the plants were some 3 inches high, when unfortunately, on account probably of its being planted alongside a plat of maize, which shared its fate, nearly every plant was pulled up by the pheasants.

“Having fortunately a little seed left (about 1 oz.), I replanted a portion of the ground on the 15th November, sowing—as before—the seed about 2 inches deep, about 3 feet apart in the rows and about the same distance between each hill, 5 or 6 seeds to each hill. This seed grew very rapidly undisturbed by the pheasants; the time at which it was planted being, in my opinion, more suitable than earlier in the season.

“By the latter end of January the canes began to form and on the 20th of February the first flower-top appeared, being considerably later than what I expected; but the ground having a slight southerly aspect may account for this. By the end of February the flowers had become well developed, the canes at this time being 8 to 9 feet high. At the present time (28th March) the seeds are well ripened, the amount of seed which I estimate to save being about half a bushel (20 to 30 Ibs.), portions of which I intend to distribute among my neighbours, so that its growth here in Waikato may be well tested.

“Judging by the growth of the small plat I have, I estimate the weight of cane that could be grown on an acre at from 15 to 20 tons at the least, from which I should say about a ton of seed could be obtained.

“Not wishing to interfere with the growth of the seed, I did not cut any of the canes for the purpose of expressing the juice, save a few only by way of experiment, from which I am led to believe—first, that the very large and the very small canes yield comparatively poor saccharine juice; and second, that medium-sized canes, of say three-quarters of an inch in diameter at their lowest joint, are far the richest in that respect; as a rule those exceeding an inch and those under two-thirds of an inch respectively at their lower joints, do not equal those that vary within those two measures in richness of juice.

“I think, therefore, that to obtain plants rich in sugar, while the seeds should be planted in rows 3 feet apart, the hills should not be more than 2 feet apart, with 3 to 4 seeds in each hill; this would tend to encourage the growth of moderate-sized canes rich in sugar. From a farming point of view I should say the Sorghum should be a very useful fodder plant, coming in when pastures are generally parched up; and, as it can be sown late, land under turnips in winter can easily be prepared for it late in spring, when the turnips are eaten off. While, should only the sugar be successfully extracted from it, it is a plant that will evidently thrive admirably on the alluvial loams of the Waikato District.

“In growing the above I purposely tried it on land of only ordinary quality and with ordinary treatment, thinking it a fairer test than by forcing the plants on extra rich soil.”

Mr. W. Tetley of Paeroa reports to Mr. Lavers as follows:—“The Sorghum (grown from the two parcels of seed which you kindly sent me, off that which Mr. Justice Gillies had in such a public-spirited manner placed at your disposal) was planted on the 1st and 2nd November. It grew to a height of from 10 feet 6 inches to 12 feet.

“I planted it on a plat of ground which I considered too wet to grow potatoes, and the season has been rather unfavourable, otherwise I think it would have grown considerably higher and heavier.

“The weight of cane produced per acre of Honduras and Early Amber (cut as directed, and stripped of leaves) was 13 tons 5 cwt. and 18 tons 3 cwt. respectively.

“From 1 cwt. of the cane we pressed (with a very indifferent machine) 6 qts. 1.86 pts. of juice, one gallon of which weighed 10 lbs. 2 oz., and yielded 2 lbs. of treacle.

“The quantity of juice to the acre will therefore be about 460 gals. from the Honduras, and 630 gals. from the Early Amber, or 920 lbs. and 1,260 lbs. of treacle to the acre respectively.”

Mr. S. Meiklejohn, of Matakana, is reported as follows in the newspapers:—“From Mr. S. Meiklejohn, Matakana, we have received a sample of syrup made from Sorghum grown upon his farm this season. He states that he got some seed from Mr. Justice Gillies, through Mr. Lavers, Queen-street, and that he planted it on land which produced four tons of potatoes to the acre. He sowed it in drills three feet apart, and it grew to the height of eight to ten feet. He believes it should be planted in drills not less than six feet apart. When beginning to seed he crushed sufficient cane to produce 35 gallons of juice, which he boiled down to 4 gallons. When the cane was fully ripe he crushed sufficient to yield 10 gallons of juice, and got 17 lbs. of syrup or molasses, a sample of which he has sent to us. The

syrup is very good, and would doubtless be very suitable in a family where there is a number of children. It is free from any unpleasant flavour, and had it been properly treated for sugar-production would no doubt have yielded more or less dry sugar. Mr. Meiklejohn is of opinion that there would be no difficulty in growing a crop that would yield from 120 to 150 gallons per acre, a quantity which we think is considerably under-estimated. With power of some kind to drive the crusher, he believes a crop of Sorghum could be grown and harvested with less risk and trouble than a crop of oats. He has found the seed to be valuable feed for fowls, and the strippings, or crushed canes, good cattle-food.”

From my own experience, therefore, and the testimony thus afforded me, I think I am warranted in saying that on average land, properly cultivated, as for a crop of maize, a crop of Early Amber cane of 15 tons to the acre, topped and stripped, may be reasonably expected. On poor soils, or if not kept clean from weeds, or in unfavourable seasons, the yield may be less; on rich soil, well cultivated, and in favourable seasons, the yield may be much greater. So much for the growth of the plant. I now come to its economic value.

That it is eagerly eaten by cattle and horses in all stages of its growth, but more especially as it comes on towards ripening, I can speak from my own experience, as well as from the testimony of others. And, as Mr. Johns points out, it may be planted after turnips are fed off,—or, as Mr. Banks has proved, after an early crop of potatoes has been taken, and come in as green food for stock in March, when our Auckland pastures are much burnt up. If the cane is kept for syrup- or sugar-making, the seed is most valuable for fowls. This brings me to my experiments in syrup- and sugar-making during the past season.

And here I may say that these experiments, though not altogether successful, are at least instructive, and may lead up to better success in the future either by myself or others. The crushing-mill I used was a No. O Victor mill (the smallest size), manufactured by the Blymyer Manufacturing Company, Cincinnati, U.S.A., price $50 or £10. (With freight per rail and mail steamer, it cost me here £16 8s. 6d.) It has worked admirably, although I have not been able yet to get it to turn out what the makers say it can do, namely—40 gallons of juice per hour. The greatest quantity I have obtained was 21 gallons per hour; but this may be owing to the slow pace of the horses used. The boiler used was of copper, and was made in Auckland, 4.6 x 2.3 x 2.3, capacity gallons. The evaporator made in Auckland was of galvanized iron, 9 feet long x 3½ feet wide x 8 inches deep. The boiler I found well suited to the work, but the evaporator was not satisfactory. They cost respectively £7 and £4 10s.

On 6th April last I received from Mr. Joseph Banks two tons of Early Amber cane, topped, but unstripped. Although the seed had so far ripened that the birds had nearly stripped it, the cane and leaves were very green owing probably to the unusually moist and cold season. Next day I began my experiments. I weighed one stalk with leaves on, 1 lb. 5 oz., put it through the mill, when the dry residuum (or bagasse) weighed 9 oz., showing 57 per cent. of juice obtained. As the juice, however, was very green, I slacked the mill rollers a little and stripped the cane. An average of 12 canes stripped showed 10 lbs. weight or 13.3 oz. per cane. At a later stage of crushing I found 82 canes yielded 3 gallons of juice, weighing 11 lbs. per gallon or 6.44 oz. juice per cane. This is equal to 48.3 per cent. of juice to cane, but on the total crushing of one ton I actually realized only 41.25 per cent. or 84 gallons. This I crushed at the rate of 12 gallons per hour, but in my subsequent crushings, with a faster walking horse, I made 21 gallons per hour. The juice was caught from the mill in graduated galvanized iron buckets and poured at once into the boiler; it showed a density of 11 at a temperature of 66° F. The fresh juice did not affect blue litmus, but after standing for an hour or two in the boiler it made the litmus a deep indigo colour. The weather in the afternoon was very wet, and as I had no shelter for the canes, they were wet while passing through the mill, thereby to some slight extent affecting the juice. In consequence of the rain I did not proceed to boil and evaporate till next morning. I then found the juice from the top of the boiler weigh 10 lb. 10 oz. per gallon, owing no doubt to part of the solid matter having settled to the bottom. The litmus showed a blue purple colour. Having lit the fire (of Kamo coal) I kept the juice constantly skimmed throughout the whole process. When the thermometer indicated 150° F., I added about one quart of cream of lime, stirring it well into the juice. My impression now is that I added too much lime, and that it was not of proper quality. I could not obtain pure shell lime, and had to use Mahurangi hydraulic lime, recently slaked, which I found by another experiment rendered the juice acrid. One hour and a quarter from the fire being lit, the juice was boiling. Having allowed it to boil for a few minutes, I drew the fire and allowed the juice to settle. Having allowed sufficient time for that purpose, I began to draw off into the evaporator, but finding a good deal of sedimentary matter still in the juice, and my stopcocks not working properly, I was obliged to dip out the hot juice with buckets and strain it through a clean cornsack into the evaporator. It was then clear and of a dark amber colour. Not wishing to allow the temperature to get below 150° F., I did not take all the juice from the boiler, only about 50 to 55 gallons, and at once started the fire under the evaporator. I then added sulphurous acid until litmus began to redden.

I kept the juice in the evaporator constantly boiling till I found the thermometer indicate 220° F. as the boiling-point. The temperature, however, must have been much higher, as the original boiling-point of the juice indicated only 210°, and I subsequently found that my thermometers could not be relied upon at those high temperatures. As soon as 220° was indicated I drew the fire, but the syrup, which had then thickened very rapidly, continued for a long time in a state of ebullition. All the time of evaporating I kept the juice stirred with wooden paddles to prevent burning, but, in spite of all my care, a portion of the syrup got burnt. As soon as possible I ladled out the syrup, which was now of the consistence of thick treacle, into a 25-gallon cask, and found that I had about 10 gallons of syrup of a rich brown colour. The cask I placed in a room with a fire to keep the temperature up to 80°, the atmospheric temperature being only 66°. Next morning I found one of the hoops had slipped, and treacle was oozing through between some of the staves. For several days the heat was kept up to 80° to 84°, but, there being no sign of crystallization, I drew off the treacle, of which there were about 5 gallons, the remainder seeming to be a yellowish treacle in a frothy condition. I have since been informed that this was saccharate of lime.

On the 10th April I tried a second experiment with the balance of Mr. Banks' cane supplemented by sufficient of my own to make up a ton. This we crushed at the rate of 21 gallons per hour. The fresh juice weighed 11.5 lbs. per gallon, showing a density of 12 at a temperature of 68° F. Obtained 80 gallons of juice from the ton, but, in the boiling, just after adding the lime, the whole thing suddenly boiled over and was destroyed. The cause I cannot tell, unless it may be connected with the state of the juice from Mr. Banks' cane, which had lain exposed to heavy rain for three days.

On the 11th I again crushed a ton of cane. This was of my own growing, fresh cut, and much riper than the former cane used. From it I obtained 78 gallons of juice, showing a density of 13.5 at a temperature of 62° F. This I boiled as before, but on this occasion used pure shell lime, which gave a much better result in clearing the juice, so that, when it came into the evaporator, it was a light amber colour. Added sulphurous acid as before to neutralize excess of lime, and continued evaporating carefully to avoid burning until the syrup had obtained, as I thought, a sufficient density—as I could not trust my thermometers. When it cooled, however, I found it had not been sufficiently evaporated, so that on this occasion also I failed to produce a crystallizable syrup. My public duties prevented my further experimenting during the past season. I may here mention, however, that Mr. Skey, the Government Analyist, in the month