372 
MISCELLANEA. 
INTRODUCTION OR A CHINESE PLANT INTO PRANCE. 
The scarcity of corn in Prance has drawn attention to a new plant 
recently introduced from China, which promises to supersede, to a certain 
extent, the use of beet-root in the manufacture of sugar and the distillation 
of alcohol. The Agricultural Committee of Toulon has recently addressed a 
report to the Minister of War, with respect to the uses of the plant in 
question. It is called the sorgho, or Holcus saccharatus, and was first 
introduced into Prance in 1851, by M. de Montigny, the French consul in 
China, who sent some grains of the seed to the government. Since then the 
culture of the plant has been commenced with success in Provence, and 
promises to be of great advantage to Algeria. The sorgho has been called 
the “ sugar-cane of the north of China,” and numerous experiments have 
recently been tried with a view to ascertain if it possesses the properties 
necessary for producing a crystallizable syrup, so as to become a rival to 
sugar-cane and beet-root. According to the Report of the Toulon Agricul- 
tural Association, it would appear to have those properties. The fact has 
been ascertained by a series of experiments made in the department of the 
Yar. It also appears to be richer in the saccharine principle than any 
known plant excepting the vine. Beet-root contains from 8 to 10 per cent, 
of sugar ; the sorgho produces from 16 to 20 per cent., from which 8 or 10 
per cent, of pure alcohol, fit for all industrial and domestic purposes, can be 
produced. The refuse is excellent food for cattle, which are very fond of it. 
The plant grows with great rapidity, and does not require irrigation. The 
sorgho is not a new discovery, as it has been used from time immemorial by 
the inhabitants of the north of China, by whom large quantities of sugar 
are extracted from it. But this is the first time it has been introduced on 
anything like an extensive scale in Europe. 
EXTRAORDINARY BREED OP SHEEP. 
The Journal de Vervins says : “ In 1852, an American vessel brought 
from Shanghai to the United States some sheep of a very valuable breed, 
and remarkable for their fecundity. They lamb twice a-year, and, what is 
most extraordinary, produce, when they have attained full maturity, two, 
four, and even six lambs at a time. In February, 1853, one ewe, belonging 
to Dr. Emerson, of Philadelphia, gave birth to three lambs ; in the month 
of August she had two others ; and each of those born in February having 
had young, the old ewe in nine months was at the head of a family of eight 
lambs. The flesh of this breed is very delicate, and the wool, though not 
very fine, can be usefully employed for blankets and carpets. Yiscount de 
Leempoel, who was the first to introduce the Durham bulls, cows, and pigs 
from Essex into our arrondissement, and who first made use of the machine 
for making draining pipes, has just written to a correspondent at New 
York to ascertain the truth of the above account, and, if correct, to have a 
thousand rams and ewes of the above breed sent for him to Havre.” 
