86 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. 



that even larger yields of Indian corn have been and are fre- 

 quently obtained, when raised, cut and cured in the same 

 manner. 



When grown for fodder, two or three cuttings may be obtained 

 from it, the first being made just before the time of blossoming, 

 when the plant immediately starts up with a ^dgorous growth 

 and renews its leaves, and sends up its flowering panicles with 

 great rapidity. No less than five cuttings were obtained in 

 Florida during the last year, but the seasons in more northern 

 latitudes would not admit of so many. It is well known that 

 Indian corn will shoot up the second time in the same manner, 

 when once cut or eaten down while green. 



This plant grows best in a dry soil and hot sun, in both of 

 which it can be accommodated as far north as New England. 

 It should be planted at or just after the time of Indian corn, 

 and it will mature its fruit in about one hundred days from the 

 seed. For the purposes of sugar making it is best cultivated 

 on rather poor, warm soils, but for feeding out to fattening 

 animals, it should be cultivated on richer ones. If raised for 

 sugar it is better harvested somewhat late in the season, when 

 the temperature ranges fi'om 45° to 55°, when it is not so apt 

 to suffer from the acetous fermentation to which it will be liable 

 if cut earlier. But if raised mainly for the seed, it would be 

 well to plant it somewhat earlier in the spring, in which case it 

 might be cut earlier in the fall. Though the seed is now 

 exceedingly dear on account of its scarcity and the extensive 

 demand for it, yet it is estimated that it can be raised at the 

 price of oats, fifty and sixty bushels to the acre hav^g been 

 obtained without any extraordinary care. The seed can be 

 made into bread or into a beverage resembling chocolate, or fed 

 to poultry and other farm stock. 



The Chinese sugar cane, if sown with a xiew to obtaining its 

 seed, or to attaining its full and perfect development, should be 

 cultivated in hills after the manner of planting Indian corn, 

 and hood and cultivated in the same manner ; but if sown for 

 fodder, it will be found to yield a more luxuriant crop in drills, 

 as we cultivate Indian corn for that purpose. In the former 

 case, one quart of seed will suffice for an acre as it tillers very 

 much, each seed sending up several shoots or seed bearing 

 stems ; in the latter case, a larger quantity would be required. 



