394 



SORGHUM. 



we should have for a ton of 2,000 pounds of each of the above the 

 following values : 



MONEY VALUES IN TWO THOUSAND POUNDS. 



Average en- 

 silage. 



Maize stalks. 



Basasse and 

 leaves. 



Albumenoids 



FMtS 



Carbhydrates 



Total . . 



|0 9.S 



46 



1 45 



84 



$0 81 

 1 51 



$1 40 



62 



3 58 



$5 66 



It would appear, then, that this mixture of leaves and bagasse, as 

 it comes from the mill, has a feeding value just twice as great as the 

 average of the 26 specimens of ensilage ; and it is, therefore, most de- 

 sirable that careful and repeated experiments be made for its preserva- 

 tion as fodder, especially in silos. Owing to the disintegration of the 

 stalk, and the rupture of the cells of the plant, the bagasse is in such 

 a condition as to rapidly enter into fermentation, and it would be nec- 

 essary, therefore, to remove it as speedily as possible from the action 

 of the air by compressing it in silos ; owing, also, to tliis thorough 

 crushing of the hard coating of the cane, the bagasse is in better con- 

 dition for eating, and the nutritive constituents would the more readily 

 be digested and assimilated. 



By general testimony, bagasse is found, when fresh, to be greedily 

 eaten by most stock, and cattle have been known, during theAvinter, to 

 burrow and eat fur into a pile of bagasse, the interior of the heap be- 

 ing obviously in the condition which it would have been if preserv^ed 

 in a silo. 



The disposition to be made of the bagasse is, on many accounts, the 

 most important question connected with the sorghum sugar industry. 



The sugar of the plant is derived ultimately from the atmosphere, 

 containing, except as an impurity, not a trace of mineral matter. It 

 would be possible, therefore, to produce upon our lands a sugar supply 

 for the ^vorld indefinitely without exhausting the soil ; indeed, the soil 

 would gradually increase in fertility under cultivation. 



But when we consider the remainder of the plant, the seed, the leaves, 

 and the bagasse, we find that for their production large demands are 

 made upon the soil, a demand practically the same as for the produc- 

 tion of an equal weight of maize. 



If the cane is stripped for the mill, the leaves are either left upon 

 the field or are preserved as food for animals, and with the proper pres- 



