HOW GROWTH MAY BE ACCELERATED. 73 
Early planting, as already observed, not only accelerates 
the ripening period, but is in accordance with the habits 
and natural requirements of the plant. Sprouting of the 
seed by steeping it in warm water, or in stimulating solu- 
tions of niter, chloride of lime, muriate of ammonia, or 
sulphate of iron, or by pouring boiling water upon it in a 
sieve, or by burying it in warm soil, or in a hot-bed, is to 
be recommended only when planting has been so long de- 
ferred as to make it necessary, and should never be adopted 
but in rare exceptional cases. 
Drainage, it is well known, is highly conducive to the 
same result. Well-drained soils are comparatively warm ; 
the snows melt upon them much sooner, and they are in a 
condition to be tilled two to four weeks earlier in the 
spring than those undrained. The soil also is kept in such 
a condition as to secure to the plant throughout the season 
the advantages thus gained. 
The “warmth” or quickening power of soils in which 
lime is a predominant ingredient, is universally recognized. 
“Tt is true of all our cultivated crops, and especially of 
those of corn,” says Johnston, ‘that their full growth is 
attained more speedily when the land is limed, and that 
they are ready for the harvest from ten to fourteen 
days earlier.” Upon sorghum this effect is equally well 
marked. This property of a limed or naturally calcareous 
soil is peculiarly noteworthy, inasmuch as it is upon such 
land that the cane acquires a richer juice and a more full 
development of its best qualities than upon any other. 
The importance of an elevated situation in hastening the 
maturity of sorghum has, doubtless, been made evident 
to every one who has had the opportunity of comparing 
cane grown on the uplands with that grown in the valleys. 
The former will uniformly mature much earlier, besides 
being generally out of reach of the early frosts. High 
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