The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1856-09-18

The Lorghum IS described In the Encyclopaedia Oh
Plants as an Indian plant, much cultivated in Arabia
and most parts Of Asia Minor, also In China, Italy,
Spain, and the West Indies, and it is said that bFooms
are made of the spikes. Il is described as Of rapid
growth, and ~affordiDg abundant food for man and for
cattle and poultry. In some botanical works it is
confounded with the broom-corn. This. however,
must be Il variety differing materially from the plant
cultivated ia the above named countries.
The seeds Of this plant, Of which variety we are
not informed, were last year received at the Patent
Office at Washington, and distributed under the
name Of the 8" Chinese Sugar-cane, or Lorghum Sac
charatum.'' It has doubtless been planted the pres
ent season in various parts of this country with
what success 1t is not yet time to know. The direc-
ton from the Patent Office was that it should be cul-
tivated rs broom-eorn, and planted in hills three feet
by two apart and six stalks In q hill
Mr.. E. Wray, in 4 letter from Paris addressed to
the London Times, speaks Of the various plants Of
this species which have been heretofore introduced
into Europe, and says that he has fifteen varieties
which arc far more valuable, collected by himself in
Cafreland, which he has carefully studied, cultiva-
ted, and manufactured into sugar during a long peri
Cd, and finally imported into Europe in the begin
ming of 1854. He adds that he has now a consider
able amount Of the plant under cultivation in four
departments in the south of France, and that he has
also introduced it into Guadaloupe, whence he has
received information that it has yielded four full
crops in one year from the same sowing.
We extract the following from Mr.. Wray's descrip-
ton of the plant, which, if not exaggerated, estab-
fishes its claim to a trial in every part of this coun-
IL 10 Il Httlll SEEM tuits II II CdltIUt tjuEc SUI
fciently to make sugar. it will make alcohol, or at
least fodder for cattle and food for poultry In album
dance. 1t would appear from Nh. Wray's descrip-
that the Imphee from Caffreland is of more rap
Ill growth than that cultivated in China, of which the
has been distributed from the Patent Office:
"These imphees vary in time of growth from -
up to $50 days, the most precocious taking on
~ from 10 to 90 days to arrive at perfect maturity
others, again, 80 to 100 days, and so on up to the
vin-bis-chu-a-pa which takes 800 DAYS.
and reaches a height of ID feet.
"On the other hand, the Chinese impbee requires
in the luxurant soil and climate of Algeria,
LOO days 70 complete its maturity. At the anne
lime, being more woody in its stock and less of juice
han the Cafre varieties, it must be at once evident
o every mind that the simple difference between 90
and 80 days in the growth of plant requiring
he hot sun or summer Must of itself decide the re-
Importance of the two for European culture. :
From this cause it is principally that the great I
made by the French chemists and agricultu- /
lists to obtain crystallized sugar from the juice of I
he Chinese variety have hitherto so signally failed. C
nd that they are ob1ge1 to convert its juice into al |
oh0l instead.
"Perfect maturity and a peculiar process OF manu-
icture (Which L have patented in many countries) n
insure the most complete Capitalization of the con- =
juice, and the sugar resulting cannot be 7
lscerned from real cane sugar of the colonies, to \
-hich it is equal in every respect. =
1.-The imphee yields from one to two and half tons =
sugar per acre, according to the quality of soil q
nd the character of the climate and season, besides F.
iOlasses and grain of excellent quality and, more h
IN some departments of France, the most pre- -
'clous varieties yield two crops in the year from the :.
sowing. -
:" As your Paris correspondent very truly says, h
e grain furnishes a good -four for bread-makinc y
I'd the green plant itself forms the most grateful ~
ld nourishing fodder for cattle which any one can h
sire, while its rapidity Of growth (being at the rate h.
about Il inches n weekly is really something mar :
llous. Daily .4drertiser. ot