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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 

 Dumbers 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 sugary juice. The leaves are as large as corn fodder, 

 and very nutritious. It has a perennial root, and so vigor- 

 ous that when once planted it is a difficult matter to eradi- 

 cate it. So care must be taken to plant it where it is not in- 

 tended 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 cut- 

 ting 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 coarse 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 covering 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 but little hay, yet it makes a fine pasture. It 

 disappears in the winter altogether, but the first warm 



