36 THE CHINESE SUGAR CANE. 
stalks were full fifteen feet, and but a small proportion were 
nine and ten. The leaves of the plants being more slender 
than those of the corn, and the joints being farther 
apart, it will not give the same amount of green fodder 
to the acre, if the plants are allowed to attain their com- 
plete maturity; but this is only a comparative loss, for 
by suffering them to stand until this time, we procure 
what we cannot obtain from the corn—a full crop of 
sugar; therefore all the forage which we obtain is so 
much actual profit. The root of the sorgho is exceed- 
ingly hard and strong. Where the ground has been well 
disturbed, the roots run to a great depth, and acquire 
very great strength; so much so, that it was a matter of 
oreat difficulty for a man to pull up a stand of sorgho on 
our place, even after the plants had been cut off from it, 
and they had stood for amonth or two. There is a very 
marked difference between the tuft of the Chinese Sugar 
Cane and some of the varieties of the Imphee; but there 
is a curious resemblance between the Shla-goo-va and the 
sorgho tufts, The stems of the tufts of the Chinese Sugar 
Cane are some of them four or five inches in length, and 
when covered with seeds, plump and ripe, by degrees, 
of course, droop over towards the ground, thus giving 
the tuft a feathery appearance; but the seed heads of the 
Vim-bis-chu-a-pa present a compact bunch of upright 
growing stems, albeit they are all laden with seeds, and 
resemble more the pompon of a military cap. 
In judging of the ripeness of the imphee seed, of - 
course the cultivator will not be misguided by any 
previous experience with the Chinese Sugar Cane; for 
while in one case he would wait for the seeds to turn 
