362 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
HOGS — CHINESE SUGAR CANE, &c. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — I have been a sub- 
scriber to your excellent paper for several years. While 
I am sending you my subscription for 1858, I desire to 
ask a little information of you or one of your correspon- 
dents, relative to the Chinese Sugar Cane. I have an 
abundance of the seed, and calculate on plandng a por- 
tion next year for green food for my hogs. I have under- 
stood recently that the Chinese Sugar Cane, like the Pea, 
generates disease. This is the point I desire instruction 
on : Is the Chinese Sugar Cane wholesome food for hogs I 
If you deem the above of general importance sufficient 
to give it a notice in the Cultivator, please answer, 
I have the pleasure of subscribing myself your well wish- 
er, S. McR. 
Louisville, Westou Co., Miss., Nov., 1757. 
[We have no doubt of the wholesomeness and great 
economy of the Chinese Cane, as a green food for hogs 
and all other domestic animals, and intend planting it very 
largely next year for successional green or “soiling” crops, 
for all our stock. See the very conclusive letter of our 
friend, G. D. Harmon, elsewhere on this subject. — Eds.] 
CHINESE SUGAR CANE FOR HOGS. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — In order to test the 
value of Chinese Sugar Cane as food for hogs, I made the 
following experiment : 
In September I weighed two shoats and put them in 
separate pens. No. 1 weighed, when put up, 76 pounds. 
It was fed on what corn it would eat and slops from the 
kitchen. No. 2 weighed 73 pounds, and was fed exclu- 
sively on Chinese Sugar Cane, seed and all. 
They were fed something over three weeks, and again 
weighed. No. 1, or the sh oat fed on Corn, weighed 115 
pounds, having gained 39 pounds. No. 2, or the shoat 
fed on the Sugar Cane, weighed 110 pounds, having gain- 
ed 37 pounds. 
This result shows that Chinese Sugar Cane is very 
near equal to Corn, as food for hogs. And take acre for 
acre, and Sugar Cane is very far superior to Corn, from 
the fact that it will produce at least five times as much. 
In other words, 5 acres of Sugar Cane is equal as food 
for hogs, to 25 acres of Corn, Yours, &c.; 
G. D. Harmon. 
Utica, Miss.^ Oct., 1857. 
CHINESE SUGAR CANE AND mPHEE. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — Below you will find 
the translation of a highly interesting letter which I lately 
received from Mr, Vilmorin, of Paris. This gentleman’s 
name and ^putation are so well known to Agriculturists, 
Horticulturist!^, and to scientific persons all over the world, 
that it is usele^to comment upon him. His house is the 
first in the world,'<n its line : 
\ Paris, June 27th, 1857. 
The Sorgho Sucre Vith black seed, (or Kao-Lang) from 
China, has been expe^mented upon in France since four 
years, and all leads us t^ believe that this plant is destined 
to a great future, as mucK for the manufacture of sugar as 
for that of alcohol. Of all the different kinds which have 
been tried, it is the richest in sugar (with one single ex- 
ception), and the easiest cultivated. 
The several Caffraria (or African) Sorghos imported by 
Mr, L. Wray, differ from the Chinese Sorgho by the 
color of their seed, and their principal vegetative charac- 
teristics — their stems or stalks are generally larger and 
their leaves broader and nearer on the stalks and the bark 
is thinner, which, in some cases is an advantage, but this 
renders them more difficult to preserve or keep any length 
of time. Finally, and this is the most important point in 
alt the experiments which I have made upon them, they 
have always proved themselves much less rich in sugar 
than the Chinese Sorgho. The most careful analysis 
which I have made of them, upon stalks raised in the 
South of France, compared to that of Chinese Sorgho, 
grown under the unfavorable climate of Pans, has given 
me for result more than double the quantity of sugar for 
the C.hinese; that is to say ; where the Imphee or African 
Sorgho would give five pounds of sugar, the Chinese Sor- 
gho would give eleven. 
I have considered the introduction into France of the 
Imphees and of some other new varieties imported by the 
“Societe d’Acclimatation,” as a great misfortune : for now 
the efforts of experimenters will be scattered without profit 
upon plants which seem to me infinitely inferior in their 
general qualities to the Chinese Sorgho, and it would be 
, a great misfortune that the same thing slmuhl liappen in 
America, and that the Chinese Sorgho, or the Kao-Lang, 
should be mistaken for or mixed with the different kinds 
of Imphee or Guinea Corn, which all coiUain some sugar, 
butin quantities too small to be profitably cultivated. 
The “Sorgho Sucre,” the seed of which has been distri- 
buted with much liberality since 3 years by the Patent 
Office, is of Chinese origin, and can be known by its seed 
which is “dark purplish,” while that of the Imphee is 
brown and a little more angular, and the seed of the 
Dourah is reniform and bi-lobed, and generally of a paler 
color. 
The only plant which has, so far, shown itself richer in 
sugar than the Sorgho Sucre, in my experiments, is a 
plant of the section of the Dourahs (that is with pendant 
ears or shoots) which I received from San Francisco, un- 
der a name evidently incorrect. But before recommending, 
it, I must stu^ it and learn more of it. 
We have tried but three of the A merican Grapes — the 
Scuppernong, the Catawba and the Isabella — the last is the 
only one which has found favor with us, as the peculiar 
flavor of the two others is unpleasant to our French pal- 
ates. [Signed] Louis Vilmorin. 
I think the above letter well worth publishing, and 
should you differ please return it, that I might have it pub- 
lished elsewhere. 
Thus it seems that the Imphee, which has been very forcL 
bly brought, and kept before the public eye, turns out to be 
far inferior to the ordinary Sorgho, and is placed in the same 
rank as to its qualities for sugar, with the common Guinea 
Corn, so well known to every body ; and the very gentle- 
man, the most scientific in that line probably in Europe,, 
whose name was brought in support of it, very plainly 
condemns it. We would call upon the gentlemen who 
have been induced to plant the Imphee (only three, we 
believe, had seed furnished them) to make fair trials of its 
qualities and to give us the result; for, as Mr. Vilmorin 
observes, it were a thousand pities that an inferior plant 
should supercede, or get mixed with that most valuable 
Chinese variety. Should the Editors wish to see the 
original letter, some parts of which I have not published, 
I will enclose it to them. A. C. 
South Carolina, July, 1857. 
SORGHO AND BIPHEE. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — In addition to the 
translation of a letter, dated from Paris, and which I sent 
you for publication, will you please insert the following 
extracts from another letter from the same gentleman, 
dated October 8th, 1857, which has just been received. 
A. C. 
