446 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



and in two months and five days had attained the height of seven 

 feet. As many as twenty-two stalks grew up from a single 

 stump, and the juice of all these made as good sugar as the 

 parent stem. 



In our own country there have been similar instances during 

 the past season. Mr. Browne, of the Patent Office, it will be 

 remembered by those of our readers who saw the articles pre- 

 viously p'iblished in the Evening Post, states that five cuttings 

 have been made in Florida from one set of stalks. In South 

 Carolina, Georgia, Illinois and New Hampshire, three and two 

 have been obtained ; and we may safely calculate that as a fodder 

 crop both the Chinese and these new African varieties will give us 

 at the North two crops of excellent nutritious forage, 



Mr. Olcott, of the Farm School, asked if the coloring matter 

 from the seed hulls could be procured in such quantities as to 

 make it a profitable department of industry ? Mr. Wray replied 

 that as yet tlie matter had not been definitely settled. He had 

 not supposed it would ; but more extended experiment might 

 prove to the contrary. The tint is abundant in the envelope 

 of the seed of the Chinese variety of sorgho. Fowls which had 

 been fed on the seed were found to have been tinted even to the 

 cellular structure of their bones. Their dung was colored of a 

 purplish hue, and could be readily distinguished in the yard from 

 tliat of birds which had not partaken of the seed ; but this pecu- 

 liarity did not lessen its value as a food. He had not tried it as 

 a feed for horses because of its extreme high price ; and when he 

 went to Kaffirland the natives told him not to feed horses on it,' 

 as it made them " puffy." Mr. Olcott exhibited specimens of 

 ribbon colored with tlie dye from the hulls of the sorgho seed, 

 and stated that he had scraped off some of the waxy effiores- 

 cence from the stalk, and it burned with a clear flame. Mr. 

 Wray said this production would not be of consequence, as the 

 small quantity obtainable and the tediousness of the operation of 

 scraping it from the stalks, would much more than counter- 

 balance any profit from its sale. He thought the computations 

 made by Mr. Hardy, the Director of the Imperial Nursery at 

 Hanima, Algiers, could not be considered as at all practically 

 valuable. 



The seed heads should be thoroughly dried befire the stripping 

 of the seed is attempted, and can then be threshed out with flails 

 in like manner to wheat, barley or other grain. 



