TILLERING—CLIMATE. 203 
or fourth year, twenty-five acres out of every hundred gen- 
erally being constantly employed in the propagation of the 
joints from which the cane on the other seventy-five acres 
is grown. 
Sorghum. —Propagated from seeds planted annually. 
In this ease all the labor is saved which, in the cultivation 
of the Southern cane in Louisiana, is expended in working 
the unproductive fourth of the whole breadth of land. 
4. Tinterina. §. cane.—The cutting or buried joint 
throws out a number of stalks (ratoons) in a manner anal- 
ogous to that by which a single root of wheat becomes 
multiplied, z.e. by tallering. 
Sorghum.—In a similar way, as already shown (see Ch. 
XI.), the crop of sorghum is largely increased by side shoots 
arising from the root. Sorghum cannot be propagated 
from cuttings of the stem, but when the stems are cut down 
they ratoon, giving a second crop, which does not ripen 
except in climates where the summer is sufficiently long. 
Mr. Leonard Wray states, that in South Africa he has 
grown ratoons of Neeazana, or white Imphee, six feet high, 
and in flower in two months after the first cutting,—some- 
times fifteen stalks tillering out from one root. These 
ripened their seed. 
5. CumatTe. §S. cane.—The production, within the 
United States, restricted to a very narrow belt of country 
bordering on the Mexican Gulf. 
Sorghum.—Already defined(see Ch. [X.); some varieties 
can be ripened wherever Indian-corn is successfully grown. 
6. Sort. S. cane.—The most favorable soil is a deep, 
rich, moist loam. The soil of new lands and of rich valleys 
is pernicious to the saccharine quality of the juice. The 
sugar is always dark when the cane is grown in such situ- 
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