799 



7-9 tons 



sowing 



is taken about 4-5 weeks later. The plant grows in soil con- 

 taining salt, and it is here grown only on land of this character, 

 where other fodder crops wonld not give a good return on account 

 of the salt. The ground is prepared in the same way as for 

 grain sorghum, being first ploughed and the seed then either 



sown 



ploughing; seed used is from l|-2 kelas per feddan (approx. 

 35-50 lb. per acre) (Foaden & Fletcher, Egyptian Agric. ii. 

 1910, p. 446). The Middle Niger plant (Dumas, I.e.— '^ Hiassa- 

 Kala," " Sorgo a Sucre," Sorghum saccharatuniy p. 461) commonly 

 cultivated in this region and in Hausaland (Chevalier, Bull. Soc. 

 d*Accl. France, 1912, p. 386 — Andropogon Sorghum var. sacchar- 

 atum, Pers.) is grown for its sweet stems, said to contain upwards. 

 of 12 per cent, of sugar. For sugar or syrup the canes are 

 recommended to to be cut when the seed is comparatively hard ; 

 the percentage of sucrose at this period having been found to be 

 at its best (11-69) and an average yield of green sorghum is from 

 8-10 tons; the i)ercentage of sugar in the juice varies from 

 8-15, and one ton of canes is estimated to give 700-1200 lb. of 

 juice, yielding 10-30 gallons of syrup, according to quality; 

 extraction is effected Avith heavy roller presses ; then clarified 

 and evaporated (Montgomery seq. pp. 328-330). Experiments 

 at Pusa show that as a source of sugar, " saccharine jowar " 

 is not worth growing in India — a demand for the syrup would 

 have to be created, the high glucose ratio of the juice militates 

 against the production of good crystalline gur, and the juice 

 contains also substances w^hich produce at times a very objection- 

 able taste in the gur; -apart from this the yield per acre w^orked. 

 out at or about 8 cwt. or only about J of that from the 

 average country sugar-cane crop. In experiments at Poona with 

 the exotic Sorghum varieties — " CoUier " and " Amber,'* very 

 similar yields were obtained, viz., 1174 lb. and 1072 lb. of 

 molasses per acre respectively. As a source of fodder the plant 

 seems valuable, the crop is fairly quick-groAving and a plot at 

 Lyallpur yielded 13 tons of total green produce per acre and it 

 is recommended to cut before the seed passes the thin milk stage, 

 as bsyond this the nutritive value of the crop as fodder decreases 

 (Annett, Agric. Res. Inst. Pusa, Bull. No. 41, 1914, p. 8). 



The cultivation in general will be the same as for the grain 

 sorghums as above described and see also end of the genus. 



Mef. 



saccharatum 



saccharatus) or North China Sugar Cane,'' Voelcker, in Journ. 

 Roy. Agric. Soc. England, xx. 1859, pp. 378-384.^— Sorghum 

 Sugar, Collier & Le Due, U.S. Dept. Agric. (Letter of the 

 Commissioner of Agric), pp. 1-42; pis. i.-xxxiii. (Govt. Printing 

 Office, Washington, 1880). Report on the Extraction of 



Maize 



& Cons 



United States, pp. 1-22. Keport on 



Manufacture of Sucrar from Sorerhum in Kansas 



St 



