210 SORGHUM. 



outside, put together. It is pressed down hard, a 

 bale weighing about three hundred pounds. It is 

 then ready for market. 



4. Sorghum Nigrum (Chinese Sugar Cane, Sorgho, I 

 or Sorgho Sucre.) 



This plant is well known throughout the United 

 States. It often attains the height of fifteen feet, ac- 

 cording to the soil on which it grows. Erect at first, 

 it appears like grass ; as it advances in growth, it re- 

 sembles Indian corn, and towards maturity Broom 

 €orn, to which it is nearly allied. 



Flowers in a panicle at the top, at first green, 

 changing through the shades of violet to purple when 

 more advanced. 



Perhaps no plant has ever been introduced into the 

 ^Northern and Western States, which was better re- 

 ceived, and had more attention paid to its cultiva- 

 tion for two or three years than the Chinese sugar 

 cane. Its yield on favorable soils was in excess of 

 any crop hitherto cultivated ; and for soiling pur- 

 poses it was admirably adapted to the tastes of all 

 domestic animals. When allowed to mature for 

 manufacturing purposes, the quality, more than the 

 quantity, was the j)rincipal object to obtain. 



It has been satisfactorily ascertained, in the num.er- 

 ous experiences in the reducing by evaporation of the 

 green juices of different lots of the cane, that that which 

 was grown on rich upland, or gravelly soils mixed 

 with a portion of loam., always yielded the richest 

 juice. 



A three years' experience of its cultivation and 

 manufacture con\TLnces me of its superior worth and 

 excellence, as one of the finest and most useful crops 



