Saccharine Sorghums 
The different kinds of cane or sorghum are 
planted very extensively for making syrup and 
also for fodder. The fact that cane will make 
a crop with very little attention leads many 
farmers to neglect it. The proper preparation 
of the soil and proper cultivation will pay with 
cane the same as with other crops. 
For best yields there must be a firm seed bed 
obtained by plowing the land early in the fall 
and harrowing or disking to keep down the 
weeds until seeding time. Such preparation 
allows whatever vegetation there may be in 
the soil to decay and leaves it in best tillable 
condition. 
Cane should be planted soon after corn when 
the soil is thoroughly warm. In planting for 
syrup production, sorghum should be planted 
in rows from 3 to 3V2 feet apart. Seeding 
should be done so that the plants stand from 
4 to 6 inches apart in the row and to do this 
requires from 2 to 4 lbs. of seed to the acre. 
Cane is often not cultivated but careful cultiva- 
tion will increase the yield to a considerable 
extent. 
When harvesting for syrup making the best 
stage for cutting is just before the hardening 
of the seed. Earlier than this the cane is too 
green and the syrup will have an unripe taste. 
If cut when the seed is too hard the juice is 
said to be difficult to clarify and the flavor of 
the syrup is not good. 
For fodder or forage cane is planted broad- 
cast or in rows. Drilling in rows is generally 
recommended. The amount of the seed planted 
should be governed by the amount of moisture 
in the soil at planting time and the rainfall 
during the growing season. A forage crop is 
not expected to produce much grain and the 
stalks should stand thick enough on the ground 
to produce fine — not coarse — forage. At the 
same time, it must be remembered that a cer- 
tain amount of moisture will care for only a 
certain number of plants. 
Too thick planting has resulted in more dis- 
appointments in yields of forage than any other 
cause. Thousands and thousands of acres of 
cane and kaffir literally burn up every year 
because there are two or three times as many 
stalks on the ground as the moisture could 
support. Drilling of a bushel or more of cane 
or kaffir in western Kansas is disastrous for 
every year except the unusually wet one. The 
seeding of one and a half to two bushels on 
the uplands of eastern Kansas will generally 
result in a poor yield- 
Since no man can tell what the weather will 
be, it is a good plan to guard against dry 
weather by not planting too heavily. 
Plant Sorghums for Silage 
As a silage crop sorghum is more productive 
than corn, regardless of rainfall, soil, elevation 
or length of growing season. The feed value is 
approximately the same as corn. 
The result of a five year test at the Kansas State 
Agricultural College was as follows: Average yield 
of silage, Sweet Sorghum, or cane, 18.02 tons per 
acre; corn, 11.81 tons per acre; Kaffir Corn, 11.88 
tons per acre. This shows the yield of sorghum 
or cane to be 50i% greater than Corn or Kaffir. 
Texas Seeded Ribbon Cane. One of the best varie- 
ties for making syrup and used extensively for that 
purpose. One of the most popular syrup sorghums 
inithe South. , ; ' % T' : '~ : 
Japanese Honey-Drip. Another large, leafy sweet 
sort which makes a heavy, yield of forage arid syrup. 
Black Amber. The old standard variety especially 
adapted to the states north of Kansas where early 
maturity is of importance. 
Orange Cane. 
Red Amber. A comparatively new variety brought 
from Australia. A little later than the Black Amber 
but more leafy and sweeter. 
Kansas Orange. A heavy yielding variety grown 
for forage, silage, seed, and syrup. It is rather late 
in maturing seed as it takes from 100 to 110 days. 
Red Top or Sumac. Grown very extensively in. 
Texas, Oklahoma, and south-western Kansas for fod- 
der. The plants are stocky, very leafy, and sweet. 
The seeds are small and therefore a bushel will plant 
a larger acreage. . . 
Sourless. A variety in Western Kansas. It is simi- 
lar to the Kansas Orange, not quite so sweet, but less 
likely to sour. 
Freed Cane. It resembles amber sorghum in ap- 
pearance of stems, leaves, and heads but differs in that 
the heads are not as juicy and only slightly sweet. 
Unlike the sweet sorghums, the seeds do not contain 
tannin, and hence are good feed for stock. The seeds 
have a chalky white color and the seed hulls are yel- 
lowish white and nearly enclose the seed. Freed sor- 
ghum matures in from 70 to 90 days and is therefore 
well adapted for short seasons and late plantings. 
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