84 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS 



alcohol fit only for industrial uses. The rich 

 molasses, diluted with water and fermented, pro- 

 duces rum. 



SORGHUM 



By the name, Sorghum, we in America mean the 

 sugar-bearing variety of the species, sorghum, 

 which is big enough to include the broom corn and 

 the kafir and durra, inaccurately called corn and 

 millet. 



The hard times that kept farmers poor in the 

 West thirty or forty years ago, made sugar a 

 luxury that they could not afford. The plant 

 upon which a good deal depended in those times 

 was the "amber sorghum," from which sorghum 

 molasses was made. Every farmer planted a 

 small patch of cane, and when the slender stalks 

 had ripened their feathery panicles of flowers, they 

 were stripped where they stood. Then they were 

 topped, after being cut down, and the part that 

 contained the soft pith, saturated with sugar, was 

 hauled to the mill. This was a crude affair, 

 installed by a neighbor who ground and boiled for 

 the community, if he could spare the time. A 

 crusher consisted of steel cylinders between which 

 the canes were fed, while a horse went round and 

 round to furnish the power. The sap was 

 caught below the crusher, and conducted to a 



