In the comparison, then, of products which bear transportation, these crops stand as follows:
Sorghum, at 7½ tons, 2,650 pounds per acre.
Corn, at 30 bushels, 1,680 pounds per acre.
Wheat, at 15 bushels, 900 pounds per acre.
The sugar from the sorghum is worth say 5 cents per pound; the molasses, 1¾ cents per pound; the seed, ½ cent per pound.
The sorghum products give market values as follows:
750 pounds sugar at say 5 cents,[2] $37.50.
1,000 pounds molasses at say 1¾ cents,[2] $17.50.
900 pounds seed at say ½ cent,[2] $4.50.
Total value of sorghum, less fodder, $59.50.
The corn crop gives 1,680 pounds, at ½ cent $8.40.
The wheat crop gives 900 pounds, at 1 cent, $9.
Thus it will be seen that the sorghum yields to the farmer more than twice as much per acre as either of the leading cereals, and as a gross product of agriculture and manufacture on our own soil more than six times as much per acre as is usually realized from either of these standard crops.
For this improvement Prof. Swenson obtained a patent Oct. 11, 1887, the grant of which was recently made the subject of congressional inquiry.
The sugar sold this year at 5¾ cents per pound, the molasses at 20 cents per gallon, and the seed at —— per bushel of 56 pounds. The seed is of about equal value with corn for feeding stock.