Dm RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1923 
TKe Sorghum Crop for 
Removing the Blades Before Catting Time. Fig. :>i >0 
M ANY of our readers have written us about 
handling sorghum or Early Amber cane as a 
sugar and syrup crop. The high price of sugar and 
the fear that it will cost more in the future has 
forced many of our country Readers to look about 
for a home-grown substitute. Many of- them have 
considered sugar beets, but if is not likely that any 
of them would ever be satisfied with beet sugar or 
gv rup made at home. The business of handling the 
beet for this purpose is a large one. Extensive 
equipment is necessary, and the product cannot be 
made economically unless on a large scale, too large 
in fact for an experiment plant. 
Sorghum or Early Amber can be used in a small 
way, and we think that one of these plants will 
offer the most practical substitute, especially for 
making syrup. The Agricultural Department at 
Washington sends out a pamphlet or booklet on this 
subject. Some of our readers have never seen 
sorghum grown. The pictures here 
show us flic crop. It does not produce 
grain like corn, but produces small 
seeds which are grown in heads, as 
shown at Fig. 292. Figs. 280 and 201 
show the mature crop and the compar¬ 
ative size of the stalks. As you may 
see from these pictures, the crop is 
grown very much like fodder corn: 
that is, thickly planted in drills. Good 
soil is necessary, and as sorghum is a 
warm-weather crop, the ground should 
be warm and well filled with organic 
matter. The seed is planted in very 
shallow furrows, like fodder corn, 
which is planted by hand, or drilled in 
with an ordinary corn-planter. For a 
comparatively small patch, to provide 
syrup for home use, hand planting will 
probably In* most effective. The drills 
or furrows are made from .‘1 to 3^ ft. 
apart, the shallow furrow being the 
most effective. The seed is scattered 
at the bottom of the furrow and lightly covered 
to begin with. As the plants come up the 
furrows may be filled by leveling off with a culti¬ 
vator. That is the way we have grown the crop in 
Northern New Jersey. The plants are evenly dis¬ 
tributed along the rows from 4 to G in. apart. Most 
people give a thicker setting than this, depending 
largely on thinning out the stalks later. Probably 
4 lbs. of seed to an acre would be a fair average 
planting, although when planting with a machine 
1 or 2 lbs. would be ample. Sorghum is not quite as 
hardy as corn, and the general plan is to sow it 
about two weeks later than ordinary corn-planting 
time. Much the same cultivating is required as 
would bo given to corn. The use of a spike-toothed 
harrow just as the plants come up. and thorough cul¬ 
tivation with an ordinary cultivator later, will carry 
it through. 
Sorghum Fields with Blade* Removed. Readg to Cut. Fig. 291 
Sorghum seems to contain more sugar when the 
seed is in the milk stage. Growers apparently differ 
in their estimate of this, much as they do in the 
culture of corn and the time for planting. Cutting 
is generally done about the most convenient time 
after the corn is ripe. The harvesting may bo done 
by hand or by machine, whichever is desired. For a 
small patch, of course, cutting by hand will be the 
best process. It is necessary to remove the heads 
and leaves before the juice is pressed out. for these, 
if left, give a bad flavor to the syrup. In a small 
patch this work should be done by hand. The seed 
heads are cut off with 6 or S in. of the upper stalk, 
as is done in the factories. The leaves are stripped 
or cut off carefully, so that the final crop just before 
cutting looks much as we see it at Fig 291. When 
the stalks are cut by hand they are laid across the 
row all in the one direction, ready to be bundled to 
the mill, where the juice is pressed out. Generally 
when there is little danger of frost, harvesters prog¬ 
ress just about as fast as the mill will work, keeping 
not more than two days' supply ahead. The amount 
of syrup to be obtained from the sorghum will, of 
course, vary according to variety, the season and the 
growth: probably the average figure would be 100 to 
150 gallons of syrup to an acre. Many of our people 
are now planting a small crop of sorghum, and this 
may help them in caring for it. Later in the season, 
when the times comes for harvesting, we will try to 
give full instructions for pressing the juice from 
the stalks and boiling it down. 
The Experiment Stations and Phosphates 
I Several mouths- ago the “Hope Farm man” gave an 
opinion on the value of Ihu-inm phosphate. This was 
done in answer to many requests, and to avoid the 
necessity of answering hundreds of questions. Several 
of the Experiment Station workers have commented on 
this article. Some refer to it as '"remarkably fair and 
reasonable.” while others consider it "very unjust.” We 
cannot print all of these comments, but the following 
from Di-. J. G. Lipinan of New Jersey seems to us a very 
good statement of the general position taken by the 
scientists. 1\ e regret that pressure of other matters 
has prevented us from printing it before.] 
I N discussing results obtained by you in the use of 
Barium phosphate you pointed out that it was 
used with manure, and that while no weights and 
definite records are available, the results from the 
use' of Barium phosphate were on the whole quite 
satisfactory to you. It is well known, of course, that 
manure is not a balanced fertilizer, and that when 
reinforced with any carrier of phosphorus if will 
produce much better results than corresponding 
manure not so reinforced. The very careful and 
authoritative experiments carried out by the Ohio 
Station, under the direction of Director Thorne, are 
quite definite and clear. As Prof. Thorne points out 
in one of his circulars, any carrier of phosphorus, 
when used for reinforcing manure, led to an increase 
in crop yields. This was true of ground phosphate 
rock, of hone meal, of basic slag and of acid phos¬ 
phate. But I’rof. Thorne also points out in liis 
circular that the returns from manure reinforced 
with acid phosphate were such as to make the use 
of any other carrier of phosphorus for reinforcing 
manure inadvisable, even though all of these cai iers 
of phosphorus can be had for nothing. This. then, 
is the important and only important question, as it 
bears on the use of Barium phosphate as a fertilizer 
to supplant manure. There is no doubt in my mind 
A Typieul Head of Sorghum Seed. Fig, 393 
that Barium phosphate plus manure will produce 
larger yields than manure alone when used on land 
that at all responds to phosphorus. But the impor¬ 
tant question is, after all. whether Barium phosphate 
plus manure will be more economical to use than 
rock phosphate plus manure or acid phosphate plus 
manure. It is not a question of results, but a ques¬ 
tion of securing certain results most economically. 
Ender the existing state of knowledge there is no 
convincing evidence that Barium phosphate is worth 
more for reinforcing manure than ordinary ground 
phosphate rock. Hence I must take issue with you 
in your statement that the experiment stations are 
condemning Barium phosphate without qualification 
and without reason. You must, I am sure, be cog¬ 
nizant of the fact that every experiment station man 
"who is honest with himself feels that he must give 
the farmer the benefit of the doubt. In the nature 
of things every experiment station man is "from 
Missouri.” If any commodity whose 
true value is not thoroughly established 
may or may not give profitable returns 
to the farmer, the experiment station 
man has not the right to recommend 
its general use. Tie has a right to 
suggest that it be used in a experi¬ 
mental way. 
To judge by the correspondence 
which we are receiving at our station, 
and I take it this is also true of other 
stations, and to judge also by the de¬ 
mand, growing more and more insistent, 
for carefully planned research work, 
the farmers of New Jersey recognize 
that iu the organization and in the per¬ 
sonnel of the experiment station there 
is an opportunity for constructive 
service that no farmer, or group of 
farmers, can themselves accomplish. A 
test is not an agreement, and while T 
agree with you most heartily that 
farmers themselves should test and try 
certain things, and keep abreast of the times 
insofar as they can. the analysis and the testing 
and the careful weighing and measuring of the 
possibilities of any new products are entirely beyond 
the scope of the ordinary farmer who has not the 
equipment or the training or the time to carry on 
technical studies expected from research institutions. 
You. of all men. should know the difference and 
should be the last one to reflect on the service of the 
experiment stations of the United States. They need 
no defense. Their record of accomplishments and 
contribution to the progress of American agriculture 
is an open book. They have, no doubt, made mis¬ 
takes; but, ou the whole, they have stood for the 
interests of the farmers and have stood out against 
rhe use of any commodity or material whose true 
value had not been definitely established. Whether 
in the field of plant nutrition or animal nutrition. 
