This was hinted at in my 1st post, but demand for sugar was escalating in the 1850s, and with it the price. Even factoring in maple syrup products, supply couldn't meet demand, so American agriculturists, and those in other countries, were active in seeking solutions to the problem, and to find another source of sweetness to supplement the annual output from the traditional sugar cane.
And here the two countries of interest began their competition in food history books.
Let me be redundant in clarifying. The sorghum syrup we know today came into being at this point in time, not the 17th or 18th centuries. While grain sorghum came over from Africa with other native food supplies for the transatlantic slave trade, it was not a sweet variety, and was never intended, or dreamed of, for a sweetening agent. It wasn't sugar, it was cereal, and relegated to the diets of Southern slaves as a flat bread or pudding/porridge well into the 3rd quarter of the 19th century. For the rest of the world, for the white empowered world, sorghum, also called guinea corn, was nothing but feed for chickens and cattle.
Then suddenly, early in the 1850s, the world discovers sweet sorghum, Sorgho, "Holcus saccharatus",or Chinese "Sugar Cane" thanks to a French ambassador to Shanghai, China, and within a year or so the Imphee, "sweet reed" or African "Sugar Cane" was found. Where did it come from originally, China, or Africa? Ah, there's the rub. Seemingly, one primary variety was native to china, and some 15 or maybe more native to Africa, though historically no "sugar" was produced by any of the native tribes raising it. Only the Chinese have a long history of extracting the syrup to reduce. By some accounts, the seeds traveled from China via Arab traders to Ethiopia, but others say the opposite was true. Regardless, both sources were recognized at nearly the same time and were quickly dispatched to America, first the Chinese seed, and then the African seed.
Englishman Leonard Wray was in the southeast coast of Africa in March 1851 when he observed Natal "Zulu" tribesmen "snacking" on the stalks of the Imphee plant. Recognizing the potential for the sugar market, he returned to Europe and cultivated crops in varied locations, experimenting on the extraction of the juices and reduction of syrup, applying for and receiving English patents for his processes that eventually brought him to the attention of Americans with a vested interest in expanding the American sugar trade.
"Be it known unto all men, that I, Leonard Wray, of the City of London, in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, have discovered a new process or method of making crystallized sugar, syrup and molasses, from all the African and Chinese varieties of the "Imphee" or "Holcus saccharatus" of Linnaeus, often denominated "Sugar millet," "Sorghum saccharatum," "Sorgho sucre'," etc., which process is also applicable to the manufacture of the same products from the juice of the maize, broom corn, the sugar maple, etc."
In essence Wray was using lime to reduce the acidity levels. He really didn't make great strides in the overall standard process as developed by De Bore & Morin of Louisiana back in 1795, but we must give him credit for his botanical skills in identification of the many variants of Imphee he was able to observe & classify, and, ultimately, for his entrepreneurship that brought him to America.
Gov. James Hammond 1807-1864 and his "Radcliffe" Plantation
Invited by Governor James Henry Hammond of South Carolina, Wray came to America in March of 1856 to continue experimentation with Imphee crops, and to define a lucrative American market for its cultivation. He brought seeds of all the varieties he had defined, all grown for him in France, but confusion in harvesting/sorting of the seeds resulted in contaminated seed lots. Regardless, the Imphee was grown in comparison to the sweet Chinese sorghum in test fields from South Carolina to Canada, but only perhaps 10 of the varieties could eventually be distinguished amongst the final crops examined.
An early 20th century harvest at "Auvergne."
Today a leading producer of Sorghum, one of the primary test locations chosen by Wray was in central Kentucky. Planter and horticulturalist Brutus Junius Clay was a marvel of 19th century antebellum ingenuity in the advancement of agriculture. His plantation, "Auvergne", was, and remains, a model of grace and agrarian industry. The only Kentuckian to participate in the experiment, Clay provided a summary at the end of the season to document his assessment of the dual sweet sorghums. He wrote,
"Paris Kentucky 23 November 1857: Dear Sir, I planted imphee on 23d day of May last. I broke the ground twice and planted the hills three by four feet apart, two and three seeds in a hill; about three fourths of it grew, hence it was rather thin on the ground. I did not well mature before frost; the middle of October.
I think the average product of stalk was no more than eight feet. They were, however, on third larger than the sorgho, and contained much more juice, of a quality very similar to that of the latter. It stood up well, large at the bottom and tapers to the top: is not liable to be blown down by the wind.
The sorgho I planted about the 13th of May. It came up well, producing talks small and slender, ten to twelve feet high, very apt to be blown down by the wind; but this and the imphee require a little more are than corn. Of the two varieties of cane, I think the imphee will prove the most valuable plant; if planted earlier and upon a good soil, with a southern exposure, I think it will ripen before frosts. The past season has been a bad one for a fair experiment; even our corn is not yet dry enough to grind for bread, it has been so backward and late. Your, Brutus J. Clay"
It would be fascinating now to examine the crop records for "Auvergne" to see what additional notes Clay may have kept, and to see what his choices were for sorghum after his participation with Wray and Governor Hammond. Most of the farm accounts of "Auvergne" are preserved in the Clay family papers in the Special Collections of the University of Kentucky in Lexington.
"Auvergne" the majestic seat of Kentucky Congressman Brutus J. Clay near Paris, KY
Almost immediately, by 1858 in fact, and surely a result of the well publicized accounts of the Wray-Hammond experimentations, both the Chinese Sorgho ($.25 cents/pound) and the "Wray" or African Imphee seeds ($1/pound) were available to consumers from American seed distributors (4 Feb 1858 "Country Gentleman" Vol. XI No. 5). Which variety of Imphee were commercially sold this early? My best answer is any, and all, as seed distributors were quick to enter this market and acquire Imphee somewhat indiscriminately to sell, seeds out of Africa via France.
The failures of Wray's American trials may have themselves inadvertently sealed the fate for his many variants of Imphee that he'd studied and recorded so diligently. No scientific control methods were implemented in the packaging & shipping of seed samples, and apparently poor, if any, records were kept describing who got what seed to plant. Wray seems to have had "hands-on" participation only with Governor Hammond. Shoddy handling of seeds in France was apparent (and likely in the US too by some of the test participants) which, coupled with an improper latitude & climate for some varieties, along with potential cross pollinations, and the aforementioned great rush to obtain seed stock for American distribution, all may have scattered, mixed, and lost many of these varieties before they could ever be fully cultivated and studied in the United States. Per the Carolina Gold Rice Foundation, 3 of the 15 (or 16) varieties exist today in 2017.
Then again, some of Wray's original varieties may have been but "sports" or natural mutations of a smaller group of Imphee than he realized, something even Wray hints at in later comments. As well, again as Wray states, sweetness varied, and some of the 15 may not really have been conducive in volume or sweetness to any sort of commercial syrup extraction, but suited more for grain cultivation. It seems unlikely that so many truly differing varieties would be found in a small section of Africa, yet only one is identified in all of China. With respect to Wray, his enthusiastic observations may have exaggerated the accuracy of his count.
David S. Shields explores all this in detail in his book, Southern Provisions: The Creation and Revival of a Cuisine. He explains that the simultaneous introduction of both the Chinese and African plants established the "basic breeding stock from which all the marketable varieties of sorghum originated."
Wray, we might presume, went on to other pursuits, and failed even himself, quite oddly, to retain seed of all the Imphee varieties he originally documented, having sold most of his store of seeds to horticultural publisher A. O. Moore of New York immediately after the American test cultivations . Moore in turn quickly advertised 10 of the 15 varieties for sale, corroborating the field notes of Wray that these were the only ones to clearly survive the test season, with most, or all, of these coming from Governor Hammond's fields.
On 7th Sept. 1882 Wray wrote the US Commissioner of Agriculture, speaking of his published pamphlet on the subject (an American version was included in an 1857 publication by H. S. Olcott, who opted to edit out references to crystallized sugar made from the plant), politely criticizing the Commissioner for changing his very African names of the varieties as discussed in Department reports, and requesting seed samples of some of the same so as to propagate his own plants from them. (See Investigation of the Scientific & Economic Relations of the Sorghum Sugar Industry, National Academy of Science, Nov. 1882. Olcott's book, Sorgho & Imphee, the Chinese & African Sugar Canes: A Treatise Upon Their Origin, Varieties, & Culture, both the first issue of 1857 & the addendum of 1858, provides the most complete and comprehensive contemporary published history of Wray's work in America.)
Overall, the product of these test crops of Imphee, despite Wray's assurance, wouldn't granulate as anticipated. The end result was a rich sweet syrup, not the replacement of refined sugar that Wary anticipated, but still a Southern staple today. Never to displace sugar from cane, sorghum supplied a need in the South, and found an important place in our recipes and on our tables.
1) Oomseeana* (sold & not kept or lost by Wray- asked for new seeds)
2) Booeeana*
3) Koombana* (saved by Wray but deteriorated-asked for new seeds) aka Imphee Liberian, aka Sumac
4) Neeazana*
5) Enyama* (saved by Wray but deteriorated- asked for new seeds) aka White Mammoth
6) Eanamoodee
7) Boomvwana* (Boomvrana is as well referenced, and these are likely the same)
8) Shlagoova
9) Eengha
10) Sorghokabaie*
11) Minnesota E. Amber (sold & not kept, or lost by Wray- asked for new seeds) aka (?)
12) Vimbischuapa (or per Wray "Sorghum Brother) aka Honduras, aka Honey, aka Mastodon
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