SORGHUM 



SORGHUM 



581 



dry sections a grain-binder may be used and the 

 bundles^ shocked, cured and stacked like wheat. 

 In humid sections this is inadvisable, as the bundles 

 are likely to mold. Ordinarily, however, the hay is 

 cut with a mower, allowed to cure in the swath a 

 short time, raked into windrows, cocked and the 

 curing completed in the cock. When well cured it 

 is stacked or put in barns. Considerable care is re- 

 quired in curing, as the stems are very succulent. 

 In the South two or more cuttings may be made 

 from a single seeding in favorable seasons. The 

 yield of cured hay ranges from two to eight tons 

 per acre. 



Uses. 



Sorghum makes excellent pasture for hogs, but 

 in many sections it must be pastured sparingly, if 

 at all, by sheep and cattle. After periods of extreme 

 drought, or when growth is stunted from other 

 causes, the leaves of the sorghums often contain a 

 large amount of prussic acid (p. 388). A small quan- 

 tity of this poison is fatal to stock, and death 

 frequently results soon after the sorghum is eaten. 

 Normal growth seldom contains prussic acid in 

 appreciable quantities, and it largely disappears in 

 curing, so that cured sorghum may be fed with 

 little danger. There is also some danger from bloat- 

 ing ; cattle and sheep should not be turned on 

 sorghum pasture when hungry or when the plants 

 are wet. With the exercise of care, however, the 

 crop can usually be pastured with safety. It should 

 be at least two feet high before stock are turned 

 on it ; for cattle, sheep and horses it may be much 

 more mature than for hogs. 



The hay and fodder may be fed in the same way 

 as other coarse hays. The fodder compares favor- 

 ably with corn fodder in feeding value. Sorghum 

 silage is slightly less nutritious than corn silage, 

 as it contains less protein. Kafir and sorghum fod- 

 der are usually considered about equal in value ; 

 fodder from the other non-saccharine varieties is 

 rather less palatable and usually contains more 

 fiber. The grain of the non-saccharine sorghums is 

 less valuable for feeding purposes than corn, five 

 bushels of kafir being considered about equal to 

 four of corn. Seed of the saccharine sorghums 

 ranks lower in feeding value than that of the non- 

 saccharine varieties, as it contains a larger per- 

 centage of hulls and the astringency of the seed- 

 coat causes the grain to be less relished by animals 

 than that of the non-saccharine sorts. 



Syrup production. 



Extent of the industry.—WheTi sorghum was first 

 introduced into this country and for many years 

 thereafter, it was used almost wholly for the pro- 

 duction of syrup or molasses. This industry reached 

 its greatest height between 1880 and 1890, when 

 twenty-five to thirty million gallons were produced 

 annually. About 1885 the production of syrup 

 began to decrease, the Census of 1900 showing 

 only 24,000,000 gallons -from the crop of 1889, 

 while ten years, later, in 1899, the production had 

 further decreased to 17,000,000 gallons. This 

 decrease was due largely to the great increase in 



the production of the cheap glucose S3rrupB. The 

 cost of manufacture of sorghum syrup necessarily 

 remains high, owing to the large amount of impurity 

 which must be removed from the juice. 



Grinding the cane. — For syrup production sor- 

 ghum is grown rather thinly in rows three and 

 one-half feet to four feet apart. The stalks are 

 cut for grinding when the seed is in the dough 

 stage or about the time it begins to harden ; if cut 

 earlier the syrup has a green taste, while if not 

 cut till fully ripe -the juice carries more impurities 

 and is more difficult to make into good syrup. The 

 cane is frequently cut as it stands, hauled to the 

 mill, and ground. When possible, especially when 

 the crop is grown on a small scale, it is better to 

 strip the leaves and remove the heads from the 

 stalks before grinding, as grinding the leaves and 

 seed with the stalks injures the quality of the syrup. 

 The stalks are usually ground with a horse-power 

 mill, though often gasoline or steam engines are 

 used to furnish the power. The mills ordinarily in 

 use do not extract more than 60 per cent of the 

 juice from the cane. 



Clarification. — The sorghum juice as it comes 

 from the mill contains about 25 per cent of im- 

 purities of various kinds. This material must be 

 removed by clarification in order to secure syrup 

 of high quality. Some of the impurities rise to the 

 surface when the juice is heated and may be 

 removed by skimming ; others settle to the bottom 

 of the pan and may be removed by drawing off the 

 juice from above, leaving the sediment undisturbed. 

 Filtering aids in removing foreign material, while 

 the addition of some substance, such as milk, which 

 coagulates on heating and rises to the surface, 

 carrying with it some of the suspended matter, is 

 used to remove others. The substance most used 

 for this purpose, however, is dry medium-grained 

 clay, using about ten pounds of clay to fifty gallons 

 of juice. The particles of clay on settling to the 

 bottom of the pan carry with them much of the 

 impurity suspended in the juice. The clay may be 

 added to the juice either before or after heating. 

 Liming to neutralize the natural acids in the 

 syrup is sometimes practiced. The processes most 

 frequently employed are skimming, settling and 

 claying. 



Making the syrup.^-T!h.e juice is reduced to syrup 

 by heating, the water being driven off by evapora- 

 tion. Shallow pans are used for this purpose, the 

 juice usually being about three inches deep in the 

 pans. The evaporation should be rapid and the 

 juice should be cooled quickly after evaporation. 

 Six to eight gallons of juice are required to make 

 one gallon of syrup, which weighs about eleven 

 and one-half pounds. The molasses, after being 

 reduced to the proper density, may be stored in 

 barrels or put up in tin cans. Its salability in most 

 markets is greatly increased if the packages con- 

 taining it are attractively labeled. The average 

 production of syrup to the acre is fifty-eight gal- 

 lons, though this yield is greatly exceeded under 

 favorable conditions. 



Sugar production. — The production of sugar from 

 sorghum has never been practiced commercially, 



