AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 339 



SORGHUM IN GEORGIA. 



Messrs. Wiley & Halsted, of No. 351 Broadway, communicated 

 tlie following extract from a business letter from D. Dickson, of 

 Oxford, Georgia, Avhicli gives a favorable opinion of the Chinese 

 cane, as a crop, in that State : 



" I have made about two thousand gallons of syrup from the 

 Chinese cane, and have had some of the seed ground, to test their 

 value for flour. It makes good coarse, dark flour, equal to A\heat 

 for batter cakes. The value of the cane may be summed up as 

 follows, viz : One acre of very rich land will make about three 

 hundred gallons of excellent syrup, and forty or fifty bushels of 

 seed, which is good feed for hogs, or for coarse flour. An acre is 

 worth more to feed hogs than the same land of planted corn, 

 besides a good crop of seed. It will make a good crop of cane 

 stalks in a dry year, when the cane crop would fail. I think 

 your farmers ought to plant southern raised seed, as it is perfectly 

 matured, and one pound will plant an acre, which will cost about 

 forty cents. I have a quantity for sale, if you know of any friend, 

 who may wish to try it." 



[Journal of Education, Montreal, Lower Canada, October, 1857.] 



From this, which with many valuable papers, maps, &c., we 

 received gratis from our very valuable friend, Mons. L. A. Iluguet 

 Latour, we take the following : 



THE POTATO DISEASE. 



"M. Speerchneider, of Ratisbon, has found the cause of it, and 

 the remed}^, sulphur. Many experiments show it to be a micro- 

 scopical parasite on the leaves of the plant. It is called Fusisp- 

 orium Solaiu. The way it reaches the potato is when the leaves 

 aie on the ground. It is imbibed by the earth, and sticks to the 

 tuber, which soon becomes rotten." 



Mr. Pardee said, these cases are provided with a soil on purpose 

 to allow the seed to vegetate. 



The Chinese cane in France — It is found dflScult to ripen the 

 seed near Paris, but the plant is esteemed for forage. It does 

 not afford sugar. 



A black melon, from seed from Portugal, weighed fifty pounds 

 and was esteemed very delicious. 



