154 
THE SORGHO, OR CHINESE SUGAR-CANE. 
Every addition to the number of cultivated plants, whether 
directly applicable to the support of man as food in them¬ 
selves, or indirectly as contributing to the rearing and fatten¬ 
ing of animals for the slaughter-house, must be reckoned as 
so much gain to our common humanity; valuable, of course, 
according to the proportion between the expense of their 
cultivation and the amount of production, as compared also 
with those plants already in use amongst us. Since the 
general introduction of root and green crops in the cultivation 
of the country, an immense increase of food has been added to 
our stores of food ; and at the same time the condition of the 
land has been improved, and the produce of the grain crops 
increased, by the raising of greater quantities and a better 
quality of manure. The turnip husbandry drove out the 
system of fallowing; after a time the rutabaga nearly super¬ 
seded the common white loaf first introduced; and still more 
recently, the mangel-wurzel has, in a great measure, ridden 
over both, as yielding a larger and more profitable crop. 
The sugar or Silesian beet-root is still upon its trial in this 
country, as against the common mangel, although on the 
Continent it is, for special reasons, largely cultivated. When 
its saccharine properties are as well understood here, it will 
probably be more generally patronised by the graziers. 
Another plant—for which Europe is indebted to China— 
has recently been introduced into France, where it is likely 
to be extensively cultivated. We refer to the sorgho, or 
Chinese sugar-cane, of which a specimen has been forwarded 
to us by our agricultural correspondent now travelling 
through France. As in his letter on the subject, published 
in a recent number of our Journal, he recommends this plant 
to the attention of the British farmer, we have thought it well 
to look into the subject; and we shall now proceed to give 
them the result of our inquiries. 
The sorgho appears to be a plant of a nature between the 
sugar-cane of the West Indies, and the maize or Indian 
corn. It is like the former in the stem ; but, so far as we can 
ascertain, is nowhere, like it, a perennial plant. It comes to 
maturity in five months ; whilst the cane requires from twelve 
to eighteen months, according to the irrigation applied to it. 
With regard to the maize, the sorgho resembles it in its 
growth, foliage, and constitution, but is totally different in 
granular produce. In saccharine properties the cane and the 
