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SORGHUM (Halpense.) 



Egyptian Sugar Cane, as its proper name is, is a daughter of the 

 Nile, where it grows fifteen or twenty feet high. So great is its 

 luxuriance there that it has filled all the upper Nile so that a canoe 

 cannot be driven through it. Great numbers of cattle and wild 

 animals resort to it, and, in fact, it is the chief sustenance of 

 ruminants in that country. 



When young it is very tender and sweet, the pith being. full of 

 8U g ar y juice. The leaves are as large as corn fodder, and very 

 nutritious. It has a perennial root, and so vigorous that when once 

 planted it is a difficult matter to eradicate it. So care must be 

 taken to plant it where it is not intended to be disturbed. The 

 roots are creeping, and throw out shoots from every joint. It is a 

 fine fertilizer, and sown on a piece of poor washed land, will, in a 

 few years restore it to its pristine fertility. But there is really not 

 much difference where it is sown, for a farmer once getting a good 

 stand, will not want to destroy it. It will bear cutting three or 

 four times a year, and, in fact, it has to be done, for when it matures 

 the seed, the stem and leaves are too course and woody for use. 



The ground must be well prepared as in other grasses, and in 

 September, the earlier the better, let it be sown one bushel to the 

 acre. 



It can be propagated also by the roots by laying off the rows 

 each way, and dropping a joint of the root two feet apart and cov- 

 ering with a drag. 



It gives the earliest pastures we have, preceding blue grass or 

 clover a month. Hogs are fond of the roots, and any amount of 

 rooting in it will not injure it. In fact, it is a stick tight. It not 

 only thrives well on bottoms, but it will grow just as well on upland, 

 and though poor upland will make little hay, yet it makes a fine 

 pasture. It disappears in the winter altogether, but the first warm 

 weather brings it up, and it grows with astonishing rapidity. On 

 our lauds and in our climate it will grow from five to seven feet 

 high, while in South Carolina it will grow twelve feet high. 



For soiling purposes it is not equaled by any grass in our knowl- 

 edge, as it can be cut every two or three weeks. 



