SORGHUM. 501 



used in sorghum, but it was soon found that it blackened 

 the syrup so much that no after treatment would restore 

 its clear color. Besides, it gave it a very disagreeable al- 

 kaline taste. Afterwards the white of eggs was used, 

 which did very well, but further manufacture brought out the 

 discovery that it contained so much gum it would coagulate 

 and clarify itself better without the addition of anything 

 with it. Skimming easily removes all impurities that 

 arises upon the surface. 



The amount of syrup procured from an acre of ground is 

 as various as are the methods of cultivation and characters 

 of the soil. From forty to two hundred gallons may be 

 considered the range, and when it is considered that a cul- 

 tivator can take his choice between the two quantities, it 

 may seem that there is cause for emulation. 



But it is rather as a forage crop that this plant properly 

 belongs in this treatise. Its uses are almost as various as 

 Indian corn itself. As has been already stated, it is greed- 

 ily eaten in all stages by stock of every kind. The seeds 

 are abundant, and one acre of good corn will make 

 from forty to sixty bushels of seed. These can be cut 

 from the corn and stored for use, taking care to spread the 

 heads until they dry, when they make good food for 

 cattle, horses, sheep, hogs and poultry. When ground 

 into flour they make good bread. Both the seeds and the 

 expressed juice have been extensively used in distillation, 

 large quantities of alcohol and sorghum brandy being an- 

 nually made from them. During the war it formed almost 

 the only resource of the South for whiskey, all grains being 

 in too much demand for distillers to use them. 



But probably it possesses more good qualities as a green 

 soiling plant than any other one. Let it be sown either 

 broadcast or thickly drilled with a seed drill very early in 

 the spring, with about one bushel of seed to the acre, and 

 there is no end to its feeding capacity. It will yield from 

 20 to 30 tons of green fodder to the acre, that, when dry, 



