CHAT TE EF: 
METHOD OF CULTIVATION. 
The Method of Cultivation adapted to the Nature and Require- 
ments of the Plant—Resemblance to Indian-corn not so close 
as has been supposed—Cereal and Saccharine Plants—Import- 
ance of adherence to System—Some Considerations of Primary 
Importance—-The Selection of the Seed—Varieties of Cane— 
Chinese and South African—Characteristics of Good Seed—How 
Germination may be hastened—Physiology of the Seed—Plant- 
ing and Cultivation—Outline of a System defined. 
THE resemblance of sorghum to Indian-corn has been so 
far exaggerated as to lead some to the inference that the 
same mode of cultivation is equally well adapted to both. 
This opinion cannot be sustained, for it practically ignores 
certain characteristics and requirements in respect to which 
they widely differ. Experience has in some measure cor- 
rected this error; but the easily learned rule to “ plant and 
cultivate the same as Indian-corn,” is yet too much in 
vogue, and strict adherence to it has, more than anything 
else, hindered improvement in the cultivation of the plant, 
and in the development of a more rational system espe- 
cially adapted to its nature. 
When it is considered that the relationship naturally 
existing between the cane aud common corn is not 
more intimate than that expressed in the fact of the pos- 
session by each of certain general characters constituting 
them members of the same great family (the grasses); that 
they are both specifically and generically distinct; that 
they are grown for widely different purposes, and that 
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