Nebraska advertiser., 1857-03-12
farmers Department.
cHINEsE sUeAR cANE.

ne OuluFdLlOu OF bue O44uSee kouSdf laut,
is becoming a subject of SO much moment
among cur farmers, that we cannot better sub
serve their interest than in giving the following
practical hints on its production, which we find
in the N T. Tribune, of Feb. LIST.
The cultivation of the SOrs1sGis or Chinese
sugar plant, has thus far proved so decidedly
successful in this Country, not only in the
South, where it seems to have been demon
strated that two crops or cuttings of sugar
bearing stalks can be obtained IN one season
from the same roots of that years planting, but
even so far North as Minnesota, where it is
testified that good syrup was made in 1856
from stalks hardly hundred days from the
seed, that we are impelled to urge upon our
farmers and gardners the importance of early
attention to the procuring of seed and planting
for the SEASON. just before US. Let us all grow
the seed this year, so that it can never more
be so scarce that speculators may run it up to
an cxhorbitant price. A great deal remains to
be settled with regard to this plant, especially
the best mode of converting its saccharine
properties into chrystalized sugar, and it is
highly probable that better varieties of it will
be ultimately discovered, at least for certain
localities, than that row current in this coun-
try. For the present, however, it is advisable
to continue and extend the cultivation of what
is accessible, and thus test the effect of accli-
nation on the character of the plant and the
sweetness of the juices. We suspect that for
Louisiana, Florida and Texas, the Sorghum
of Southern Africa will ultimately be found
| preferable to that obtained from France by our
Patent Office, and from China by France. If
it prove true that this plant or CERTAIN varieties
of it can be grown from year to year in semi
tropical latitudes from the same root, as the
cane is grown in the West Indias, and that two
or more crops of sugar yielding stalks may be
cut from that root each season, then there can
be little doubt that our Southern States are de-
stined still to lead the North in the production
of sugar. For the present, however, itsufices
that the Sorghum may be grown wherever
Indian corn will usually ripen--thatits abund-
ant juice makes very pleasant syrup or
molasses, to which it is easily reduced by boil
ing away four-ffths of it in the ordinary mode
of sugar making from the sap of the maple
and that the leaves and stalks, whether green
or dry, of the Sorghum make an admirable
fodder for cattle, horses or hogs, while the seeds
are eaten with avidity by fowls also, to justify
the general interest evinced in its cultivation.
We propose, therefore, to condense into the
smallest space some practical directions to the
prospective cultiyator, as follows:
1. Planting.-Choose warm, mellow soil,
such as you would confidently expect to grow
at least, fifty bushels of Indian corn to the
acre. Plow early, plOw deep and thoroughly.
Plant as early as you could venture to plant
corn. If you have a hot bed, start a little
seed in one corner of it. If you plant con-
siderably, put in your seed at different times
say, in this latitude, one quarter each on the
1st, 10th, goth of May and 1st of June respect
lively. Plant (for seed) in hills, six seeds to
the hill, and at distances of four feet each
way. Try some five feet apart east and west
$50 as to let in the sun between the rows, and
some in drills-say four or five feet apart. Il
you have seed in abundance, SOW a little il
drills two feet apart, the seeds in the drill but
two or three inches apart Cover lightly, as
the seed rots if covered deeply. Keep the
hens at distance. or it viii come up too soon
q TEzqge.-The Sorghum comes up look
ing very puny-much like broom corn or barr
grass. If you set a blockhead to weed it, hi
will probably pull it up, and report that il
never germinated. Cultivate like Indian corn
only faithfully. If suckers start, majority
. say pinch them or pull them oiF-that is il
growing for seed. This need not be done il
growing for sugar.
g. HarUesting- Whenever the seed shall
be hard and black, cut off the upper part of tn,
stalks, say three feet long, and hang them u
like broom-corn, in dry chamber, suspended
from the ceiling, SO as to be out of the way o
rats, &C. Now cut your stalks, pull Of tn,
leaves, and satisfy yourself that all manner 0
stock will eat them; and put the rest of tn
stalks through any kind of crushing mil
T that may be handy-a cider-mill would b
, better than nothing-catch the juice and in
stantly warm it over slow fire in large kettle
skimming Of the scum SO long as any shal
{ rise. Then boil the juice about four-ffth
! away, as if it were maple sap. Use littl
lime or lime-watert to neutraiize the phosphori
o acid, which otherwise viii give a slightly ac
but not unpleasant taste to the syrup. Sav
some syrup without thus neutralizing the acre
u as you may like it better that way. Don
y waste the scum, but throw it to the pigs, wher
IS it will make at least excellent manure. Fee
Is the pumice or crushed stalks to your cattle
aud, having thus cleared the ground, be read
to plant or sow extensively next Spring
/ 4. F09der.-We estimate that, wheneYe
e seed shall be sufficiently abundant, and ricf
4. warm land will produce third more fodde
Is per acre if sown with Sorghum than if sow
le with Indian corn, and the Sorghum is twenty
10 five per cent. more nutritious than the corn