DESCRIPTION OF THE PLANT. 35 
like manner to wheat, becomes filled with farinaceous 
matter, and the grains are plump and hard. The soft 
sreen pulp, as the plant approaches maturity, undergoes 
transitions in color, changing to violet, brown, and 
finally, to a purple, almost black. When this latter color 
appears, the plant has reached its last stage of vegeta- 
tion, and will give its greatest amount of sugar. The 
stalk, as compared with that of the maize, is more slender 
and soft. The adhesion of the parts above and below 
the knots is not so firm, for I have found in the crops 
which we have cultivated at the Farm School, that a 
eust of wind would break the plants off at the knots 
when they attained considerable height, in a wet season. 
Another peculiarity distinguishing the sorgho stalk from 
that of the corn, is, that as the plant approaches maturity, 
we see a whitish effloresence appear upon the parts un- 
derneath the foot-stalks of the leaf. This is a dry, hard 
powder, and is known to the French, under the name 
of cerosie, or vegetable wax. Of its uses and probable 
value, we will speak in the appropriate place. 
HEIGHT, ETC, 
The sorgho attains different heights as the circum- 
stances controlling its growth are more or less favorable, 
and on some soils, the deep black loam for instance, grows 
toan enormous height, as high as sixteen or eighteen feet, 
while on poorer soils, on gravels or gravelly loams, or 
colder soils, it is shorter; but on dry, poor soils its juices 
have a greater tendency to crystallize. My own crop 
averaged the last season eleven feet in height. Some of the 
