SORGHUM FLOUR.—VINEGAR. 227 
thus prepared differ but little from those prepared from 
well-ripened grapes, and are much to be preferred to the 
fermented fruit juices in common use. 
Sorghum seed has frequently been used for the manufac- 
ture of a kind of flour which has proved to be nutritious 
and valuable. It somewhat resembles buckwheat flour. 
In the Southern States particularly, large quantities of it 
were used during the late rebellion. That made from cer- 
tain varieties of cane contracts a light pinkish color from 
the outer covering of the seed. The seed, ground with - 
oats or corn, or without intermixture, forms a valuable feed 
for horses and cattle, and is considered to be equal to rye 
for this purpose. The whole grain boiled is also excellent 
food for cattle or fowls. From thirty to fifty bushels of 
seed may be grown upon an acre of ground. The blades, 
and young cane from the second cutting of early ripening 
varieties, may profitably be cured (see Ch. XII.) and used 
as hay. 
The scum produced in this process is very valuable for 
feeding swine for fattening, but the precaution must be 
taken to commence feeding it in small quantities, gradually 
increased, and always in connection with grain. It should 
not be fed in a fermented condition. 
Ordinary cane juice is capable of being converted into 
from 5 to 9 per cent. of alcohol. The mode of making 
vinegar from sorghum juice, or from the washings of the 
pans, the filter, etc., differs in no respect from that ordina- 
rily pursued in converting cider into vinegar, except that 
when the juice of cane is used, it must previously have 
been thoroughly defecated. Before fermentation a cupful 
of fresh yeast must be added to each cask. 
