St. Mary's beacon., 1857-04-16
MISCELLANEOUS.
CHINA SUGAR CANE.

~. \HtNA QUAR- Ia Ne.
G. w. Kendall. former editor of the
N. o PlCayune, and resident in Texas.
writes as follows in reference to this Spe.
cIes Of cane:
For the last six months have hardly
opened pap"r whether devoted to agri.
culture, politics, religion, sporting aiIailS.
or what not, without seeing some potice
OF the Sorgho Sncre. or Chinese Sugar
cane; why have not a perfect right to
add my experience to the general stock
OF information i'll relation to the cultiva-
llon OF this new grain, or plant, or what
ever it may be termed: To begin,
then.
In October, 1853, I purchased in Paris
small paper ut the seed do not tbirk
there as more than two heapinS table
SpoonsiuI of it. or thll$ at TIE outside
| brought it with ESsto New Orleans,
and on arriving sentA here to be plant
ed When reached this place. early in
May last, it was just peerIng above the
ground, two rows of it in ten acre field.
which bad beep devoted 10 the main n
mlllet, oats, and little Indian corn. and
tour short rows in our garden-the lat
ter planted last.
About the eighth OF july the two rows
in the larger field had shot up. headed
out and npened, notwithstanding the
drought. and the heavy heads were cut
for seed. The oats meanwhile had moi
ctH1Ss uP,. tt,e ,piu-.s J. was isardlg above
ground, while ihc lnd,2h corn was parcL-
ed and drying up for want Of rain. Two
or three mornings afterward. on looking
at III. field from a hill close hy I noticed
that the two rows of Sorgho Sucre had
entirely disappeared, while rows of In
dian corn on either side was still stand
ing. On close examination, ] asceriained
that lot OF hogs-hogS are apt 10 do such
things-had broken into the field, and
devoured the Chinese sugar cane root
and branch; it was cut clean to the ground
by the porkers, not a sign or veStige was
left, while, as already stated, the stalks
of the common Indian corn on either side
were left standing. was thankful had
saved the seed, and thought little more
of IL.
Some few days after thrs-perhaps a
fortnight-the rows planted in the garden
were examined, the heads of seed found
10 be ripe, and the greater portion cut
and brought TO the house, leaving the tall
stalks still standing. On cutting down
one of the latter, which must have been
ten feet high, found il to be exceed
ingly heavy, and on tasting the cane, IL
seemed to me TO be AS tull of saccharine
juice as the ordinary sugar cane Of Lou
iSiana. At the same tune had two or
three imported French merino sheen in
my yard, In great want of green fodder.
aud on cutting the cane into small pieces
] found that they devoured it with the
greatest avidity. After this | fed them
on it for some time, single stalk fur
nishing a good bait. ] also gave some
OF it to a favorite mare, she eating it even
more greedily than the. sheep.
Some three weeks after the ripe heads
of seed were cut noticed that new heads
had shot up from the same stalk; and
these new heads blossomed, filed and
ripened IN September, aud were cut and
brought TO the house. All this time YOU
must recollect We were suffering from
the unprecedented drouth. and Indian
corn and sweet potatoes, water melons.
pumpkins, and the like, had died down
to the very ground.
now became more interested in the
Sorgho Sucre than ever, and although I
still fed out daily to the merrnoes and
mare, left a. portion of the stalks stand
ing. Soon new heads were seen shoo'-
ing forth, and :hese IN turn blossoned
and ripened as did the first. kept no
account Of dates, but think this third crop
Of seed from the same stalk, if so NAV
call it, was gathered about the first of
October; it might have been during the
second week Of that month. I planted
some OF this last seed, by way ofexperi-
ment.~ Itcame up rapidly. looked thrifty,
grew until il was nearly knee high, and
was finally cut down BY f'os, in Noven-
ber. A great number of shoo:s or suck
er<, which had sprung up from the stalk.
first planted, were cut down at the same
time; the Sorgho Sucre can stand any
kind Of drou ght, but the frat sharp fros,
kills it to The ground. e. = .1t'.-f