AND OTHER FORAGE PLANTS. 117 



yielding more and waiting longer without deterioration after 

 ready for the mill. 



The bent top variety produces more seed than the others, but 

 stock do not relish them so well ; probably from the head, when 

 fed unthreshed, making too large a mouthful for comfortable 

 mastication and from its being more bitter than other varieties 

 when immature or not dried. Like the bent-top Doura corn, 

 the peduncle has a tendency to rise up, and panicles may be 

 seen at every angle with the horizon, both above and below; 

 and also a tendenoy to change from the short branched, close 

 packed, to the open, long, nodding branched panicle. And in 

 proportion as it assumes the latter characters, it becomes more 

 a broom or Doura corn and less a sugar cane. 



For sugar, seeds should be carefully selected in the field. 

 Stalks with the most compact panicle and bent peduncle should 

 be selected and remain until the seed are perfectly ripe. After 

 removing the panicle, the stalks will still be good for sugar or 

 syrup. For seed, only those stalks should be taken with 

 the kead turned down so far as to touch the stem below or even 

 cross it. This variety requires a longer time to mature than 

 the others, but it is very much larger. For syrup it should 

 have more room than when planted for forage having rows at 

 least four feet apart. * 



All these sorghums send roots down several feet deep and 

 make more and better syrup on gravelly or sandy sub-soil. If 

 the bagAse or stalks are returned and plowed under, the land 

 is very little exhausted. I have seen them giown for years on 

 the same thin land without fertilizers and with little sign of 

 exhaustion. 



Before dismissing the sweet Sorghums, perhaps I should state 

 that the longer they are permitted to stand after maturity, the 

 greater tendency 1 find to generate formic acid in boiling the 

 juice for syrup. This tendency is decidedly greater in the bent- 

 top or goose-neck variety than in any other I have tested. 

 This acid, so difficult to eliminate while making the syrup, be- 

 ing offensive in odor and flavor, damages syrups otherwise most 

 perfect, 



SORGHUM NUTANS, Indian grass, Wood grass. 



This and the two other native species, mentioned on a prece- 

 ding page, are of little nutritive value as will be seen by Mr. 

 Collier's 



ANALYSIS OF SORGHUM NUTANS. 



Oil, 1.57 Amylaceous cellulose, 27.25 



Wax, .10 Alkali extract, 14.44 



Sugars, 7.27 Albuminoids, 3.29 



Gum and dextrin, 3.75 Ash, 5.63 



Cellulose, 36.70 



100.00 



