796 Tea^^sactions of tee American Institute. 



■vvill raise as good potatoes at from two dollars . to ten dollars per 

 acre. 



Sorghum Fodder. 



Mr. R. Lewis, Cuba, N. Y., writes : Will sorghum stalk and fodder 

 answer for feed to stock, and where can I get good seed ? 



Mr. Horace Greeley. — I ha.ve planted the sorghum for its fodder, and 

 am well satisfied of its value. It will grow more as feed than corn, 

 and is more nourishing. But at Cuba the frosts come too soon for it 

 to be of any value. It comes too late in this climate. At the south, 

 in the Carolinas and Georgia, I have no doubt it would be of great 

 value. 



Mr. F. D. Curtis. — My experience is the same. I have had a yield 

 of forty tons from the acre, but, as Mr. Greeley remarks, it comes too 

 late in this climate. My cattle ate it and liked it. 



Mr. H. L. Reade. — Could it not be used for fodder? 



Mr. Horace Greeley. — No ; it dries to a crisp. 



Prof. H. E. Colton. — I have a friend in the south, a large planter, 

 who used it years ago, and was much pleased with it as a green food ; 

 preferred it to anything else he could get. Its use became very gene- 

 ral until during the first year of the war some cattle were poisoned by 

 eating it, in Guilford county, N. C. This gave it a bad name for a 

 while, but that soon, passed away. I investigated the matter, and 

 fouud that the fodder and stalks which the cattle ate had been cut 

 for several days, and when fed were wet with dew. I imagine some 

 new form of acid was created by a union of the fermented acid of 

 the plant and the dew. lN"o other bad results were ever heard of,*" 

 and it is very generalh^ sown, as corn is here, as a green food for 

 stock. 



Club Foot in (Cabbage — Effects of Marl. 

 Mr. B. Bishop, New Russia, N. Y., writes : When I was a boy 1 

 liad the care of my father's kitchen garden, which was on old ground, 

 where it was almost impossible to raise a single good head of cabbage 

 (jn account of the club foot. I experimented until I found a remedy 

 that I have never known to fail in a single instance. Fill a kettle 

 with the leaves and twigs of red-berried elder, sometimes called 

 stinking elder. It can be distinguished from the common sweet elder 

 by its blossoming much earlier in the spring, and by its scarlet berries ; 

 also by its brown pith. Add water, and boil till you get a strong 

 decoction ; when it is cool, pour carefully on the center of each plant 



