SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR 
363 
jS^r.— On my return home from a journey into Switzer- 
land, I found the several varieties of Sorgho which I have 
under cultivation, nearly ripe and ready for the experi- 
ments I had determined to make upon them. These com- 
prise a greater number of varieties than were tried upon 
last year. I have postponed writing, in order to give you 
the results for the crop of 1857. 
Generally speaking, the juice is a little less rich in sugar 
than it was last year, but the proportions between the dif- 
ferent species remain the same. The richest juice in sugar 
is that of a small species of the group H. Cernuns, which 
I have received from San Francisco, under the name of 
Egyptian Corn. But its small sixe and the dryness ofits 
marrow will more than counterbalance its sweetness, and 
render it unfit for profitable culture ; and besides it loses 
much of its quality when the seeds approach maturity. 
The true Sorgho Sucre, Kaoleang of China, comes next; 
its stems are high, juicy, with thick rind, which preserves 
the juice from niouldiness or from the ‘h'ed rot.” Some 
plants of this species already show improvement in the 
.quantity of sugar, by the seed having been selected from 
the richest plants of the previous season. 
The Imphees of !Mr. Wray, are vigorous and of beauti- 
ful growth, but the leaves take too great a share of the 
vegetation ; the stems are brittle, the rind is thin and easi- 
ly torn or split by the action of wind or transportation, 
and mouldiness and "red rot” are very injurious to them. 
The density, and the saccharine richness of thejuice are 
also very weak. 
In this experiment as well as in former ones, the Chi- 
nese Sorgho has invariably proved itself far superior. 
The farther South we go the more does the proportion 
of sugar increase in the Sorgho. Under the climate of 
Paris it yields from 13 to 14 per cent, of sugar; in the 
South of France, 16 to 18; and in Algeria from 20 to 21, 
Here the Imphee gives 5 to 6 ; in the South, near Bor- 
deaux, it gave 7 ; while the Sorgho gave 16. I have not 
yet heard from Algeria as to the Imphee, but from what I 
have seen of this plant, I suppose it will attain its fullma- 
turity only in equatorial regions. 
In a small pamphlet which I published in 1854, on the 
Sorgho (and of which I send you a number,) I remarked 
that the Chinese Sorgho, by its habits, seemed to be the 
very plant for the production of sugar and alcohol, so much 
■needed between the Southern limit of the profitable cul- 
ture of the Beet, and the Northern limit of the Sugar Cane. 
This is not the case v/ith the Imphee, which will acquire 
sufficient sweetness only v/here the Sugar Cane thrives, 
I consider it a great misfortune that this latter plant 
■should have been introduced among us ; and, of the two 
plants, that of which newspapers will speak most, will be 
the most planted, and .should the experiments on the one 
be unfavorable, very few will be tempted to renew them 
upon the other, and thus the extensive culture of the truly 
valuable Sorgho might be much retarded. This at least 
Jias been the case here. Louis Vilmorin. 
THE SPIRIT OF AUTU3IN. 
Our brother, H.iRRis, of the Ohio Cultivator, is happy 
■in the association of a gifted daughter of New England, 
who is known to the public as " Cultivator Ma.ryP This 
lady has been spending some time among her native hills, 
and we present from her last letter to our Ohio namesake, 
the following sweet, pensive, and beautiful picture of the 
Northern Indian Summer, It is a “prose poem” — a rare 
specimen of “word painting,” which we commend to the 
.enjoyment of all appreciative readers : 
Opposite my window stretches a long, broad orchard, 
bounded by a rude stone wall. The apple trees are bend- 
ing with their burden of ripe fruit. The corn is ready 
to be gathered, and the shocks are rustling in the wind, 
Down the hill, by the old farm-house, lies a pile of golden 
pumpkins, and against the fence stands a rack with its 
string of quartered apples drying in the sunlight. 
The glory of the harvest time is here. The richness 
and brilliance of summer, its ardent heat and gay verdure 
have softly changed and melted into the pensiveness of 
autumn. 
W e rode into the country yesterday. By the side of 
the Merrimac, up among the hills, through long, shady 
lanes, and by the gorgeous forests. A soft, beautiful haze 
hung over the hills and woods, and some of the fervency 
of summer still lingered in the autumn breeze. A strange, 
sweet spirit enters your heart when your vision takes 
in such silent beauty, for your buried dear ones come be- 
fore you with all that was gentle and lovely in their 
characters. 
Your better self triumphs over your grosser nature, and 
all the beautiful thoughts and hopes that you have cherish- 
ed in your heart as too frail and sacred to be defined to a 
mortal friend, develope beneath this strange influence, 
just as music awakes a rapture within, that language can 
never express ! 
The boughs of the elms and maples bent above us, and 
their leaves, crimson, orange, and tenderly streaked with 
green, drifted down upon us as silently as the angels drop 
blessings down upon this anxious world ! 
Death does not seem so stern a thing amid this gradual, 
beautiful decay. Why should it I The promise of the 
spring-time is fulfilled, and faithful nature glows with the 
consciousness of its perfect trust. Just as heavens gleams 
in the last look of the righteous, so she puts on her beauti- 
ful robes, ere she gathers them up, and lays down in her 
shroud for a season of rest. 
INTERESTING ARTICLE ON MULES, 
BY B. MUNROE, WOODFIELD CITY, KENTUC KY. 
Mr. Editor : — Supposing that little is known among 
the generality of your readers as to the extent of the mule 
business in this State, I concluded it would not be uninter- 
esting te them to learn concerning it, and something of the 
character of the beast itself, as I take it for granted they 
have not had an opportunity of learning all his phreno- 
logical developments or temperament. 
The mule trade is one of the largest of Kentucky,and af- 
fords one of her chief sources of revenue. The increasing 
demand for them in the South among the sugar 
and cotton planters (which is owing, no doubt, to the great 
number of farms annually being opened in that section,) 
affords a very easy solution for the eagernesss and extent 
to which stock-growers launch into the trade, for it is a 
heavy business, I’equiring a great deal of capital. The 
mule is fed from weaning time, (which is generally at the 
age of five or six months,) to the full extent of its capacity 
to eat, and that, too, on oats and corn, together with hay 
and fodder. In lieu of the long food, soiling is usually 
adopted in the summer, as they are kept confined in a 
pound or paddock, containing an acre or two of ground, 
which is usually partially shaded, in herds of one hundred 
or one hundred and fifty. In this way they are kept un- 
til the fall after they are two years old, receiving a sort of 
forcing hot-house treatment. At this age they are taken 
to the Southern market, not always by the feeder, but more 
generally by the speculator or “trader;” there they are 
sold to the planter entirely unbroken. The planters are 
too cautious to to buy a broke mule, lest it should prove 
to be an antiquated, broken down beast, fattened up, and 
sold for a young one— as it is more difficult to judge of 
their ages than that of a horse. The external marks of 
time and service are not generally so apparent upon them. 
But it is a small job to break a mule. It is only necessary 
