The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1857-05-13
CHINESE SUGAR PLANT.

or cuttings of sugar bearing stalks can
be obtained in one season from the same
roots of that years planting, but aver
10 far north as Minnesota, where 1t is
testified that good syrup was made in
1856 from stalks hardly a hundred days
from the seed, that We are impelled to
urge upon our farmers and gardeners 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 spectators may
run it up to IAN o%xorbitant price. a
rreat deal remains to be settled with re-
gard to this plant, especially the best
mode of converting it's saccharine pro-
perties into crystalized sugar. and it is
highly probable that better varieties of
it will ultimately be discovered, at least
for certain localities, than that now cur
rent in this country. For the present,
however, it is advisable to continue and
extend the cultivation of that which is
accessible, and thus test the effect Of &C
climation on the character of the plant
and the sweetness of its juices. We
suspect that for Louisiana, Florida aud
Texas, the Sorghum Of Southern Africa
will ultimately be found preferable to
that obtained from France by our Pat
ent office, and from China by France.
If it prove true that this plant, or GER
tain varieties of it, can be grown from
year to year in semi-tropical ATTITUDES
from the same root, as the cane is grown
in the West Indies, 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 South
ern States are destined still to lead the
North in the production of sugar. For
the present, however, it %sufices that the
Sorghum may be grown wherever Indian
Corn will usually ripen-that its album
dant juice makes a very pleasant syrup
or molasses, to which it is easily reduced
by boiling 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 eviBced in
its cultivation. We propose, therefore,
to condense into the smallest space some
practical directions to the prospective
cultivator-as follows:
l. Seed. If there be a seed store with
in your reach, your easiest way is to send
and buy what seed you want. In plant
ing to raise seed (the first years object
q pound will suffice for an acre; and this
ought not to cost more than a dollar r.
But beware of imposters and swindlers,
for bushels of broom corn and kindred
seeds will be palmed off as that of the
Sorghum. Where you cannot readily
obtain seed in this way, write to your
Member of Congress asking him to send
you a paper, and he will generally be
able to do SO. If not, the Secretary of
your State Agricultural Society may be
able to supply you.
2. Planting, Choose, a warm, mellow
soil, such as you would confidently ex-
pect to grow at least fifty bushels of In.
dian corn to the acre. Plow early, and
pillow deep and thoroughly-Plant as
early as you could venture to plant corn.
IF you have a hot bed, starts little seed
in INT corner of it. If you plant con-
siderably, put in your seed at different
timesTsay, in this latitude, one quarter
each on the lgK 10th and goth of May
and LIST of June respectively. Plant
flor seed) in hills, six seeds to the hill
and at distances of four each way. Try
some five feet apart east and west with
the seed six inches apart III the drill, and
thin the plants to one foot apart. If
you have seed in abundance, SOW q little
in drills two feet apart, the seeds in the
drill bat two or three inches apart
Cover lightly, as the seed rots if covered
deeply. Keep the hens at a distance, or
it will come up too soon.
8. Tillage. The Sorghum look
ing very puny-much like broom corn
or barn grass. If you set a ~blockhead
to weed it, he will probably pull it up
and report that it never germinated-
Cultivate like Indian corn, only faith
fully. If suckers start, a majority say
pinch them or pull them off-that is, in
growing for seed. This need not be done
in growing for sugar.
A. Harvesting. Whenever the seed
be hard and black, cut off the up
per part of the stalks, say three feet
long, hang them up like broom corn, in
q dry chamber, suspended from the CELL
ing, 80 as to be out of the way of rats, |
Sc. Now cut up your stalks, pull off {
the leaves, and satisfy yourself that all
manner of stock will eat them; cut up t
! few of the stalks, as you would corn c
stalks; and try a little experiment with s
hem; and put the rest of the stalks
any kind of a crushing mill that
nay be handy older mill would be \
,etter than nothiDg-catch the juice and n
instantly warm it over slow fire in a large a