64 SOILS. 
ease the cane seldom ripens, and yields about one gallon 
to twelve of juice, of a dark, pungent, uncrystallizable 
syrup. Upon such a soil the maize attains to nucommon 
luxuriance and fruitfulness; and itis this peculiarity which 
forms one of the most important points of distinction be- 
tween it and the cane. Upon lands which have ceased to 
produce remunerative crops of corn, sorghum often thrives 
well; because, like the pea, clover, etc., it sends its roots 
down deeply and draws much of its nourishment from the 
subsoil which is rich in mineral food that the less pen- 
etrative roots of the corn have failed to extract. 
But if a light, caleareous loam be selected, which is deep 
and mellow, either comparatively new land which has been 
long enough in cultivation to have had its vegetable mat- 
ter thoroughly incorporated with the deeper layers of soil 
—or old limestone land which has not been suffered to de- 
teriorate by injudicious cropping, and to which no more 
animal manure has been applied than is necessary to give 
- a stimulus to the plant in the early stage of its growth, the 
cane will attain to a very large size, it will mature its seed 
and juice in all ordinary seasons in the Middle and Western 
States, producing an abundance of a light-colored and easily 
erystallizable sugar, and a fine rich syrup. If with these ad- 
vantages of soil is combined a side-hill exposure to the 
south, sloping at such an angle as to receive the verti- 
eal rays of the sun at noon in midsummer, we will then 
have supplied all the natural prerequisites for bringing the 
_plant to the highest condition of which it is capable. A 
' good variety of cane, under these circumstances, will sel- 
~ dom fail to produce less than one gallon of syrup or five 
~ pounds of sugar, from every five gallous of juice. 
\ Such soils are abundantly distributed throughout the 
whole district where sugar production would be profitable, 
and especially on the uplands in the Western States they 
