Lewistown gazette. [volume] (Lewistown, Pa.) 1843-1944, 1867-04-10

For the Gazette.
SORGHUM.

Sorghum was cultivated in nearly ev-
cry State and Territory of the Union,
the yield that year being 1886, OPS gal
Ions. Since then larger experience
in cultivatiRg and constantly improv-
ing machinery in manufacturing have
tended to increase the breadth plant
ed every year. Although the newspa-
pers and the agricultural reports of the
patent Office at Washington called at
tentlon to it about ten years ago, yet,
| believe. no Sorghum molasses was
manufactured in Miff1in county before
the fall of '64. VIII 1t pay, was, of
course, the first question. The crop of
1865 answered that question satis4aeto-
rily in the affirmative for many of our
farmers. Last summer was unfayora-
bic to the crop owing TO the unusually
early occurrences of dry weather, which
prevented the plants from getting a
fair and early start. Sorghum is a
hardy plant. With moisture enough
to give the roots of the plant fair
start a good crop may be expected even
in dry season because the roots ex-
tend very deep into the ground. Much
of the cane was damaged last fall for
want of care in cutting and setting up
in the dry soon after the appearance
of heavy frost. Some farmers tied the
cane in bundles while wet and green,
then packed it into wagon or even
in piles out in the field, and kept it
thus week OF. two until it was halt
rotten; then, of course, the manufactu-
rer refused the job or made dark,
stringy, i'll favored article, as was to
be expected. Others cut the cane
when drySSand set it up loose in the
dry, and were rewarded, notwithstand-
ing the unfavorable season, by Il fair
quality and quantity of syrup.
For productiveness and mildness of
flavor the regular Sorghum stands sec
ond to none the Iiberian would be as
desirable were it not few weeks Ia
ter in ripening. The White Imphee
does not yield quite SO well. The Red
Imphee is u few weeks earlier than the
Sorghum and is about as well-favored.
Sorghum will grow where corn will,
but the best favored and highest col
ored syrups are made from cane rails
ed on high, dry, and rather loose soil.
1t should be planted as soon in the
spring as the soil becomes warm
enough to cause the seeds to germi-
nate. Plant in hills about twenty in
ches apart dropping about eight seeds
to hill or, it can be most easily kept
free from grass and weeds by "check-
eriug" it like corn. When the hills are
as far apart, as corn-hiIls about fifteen
seeds may be dropped in hill; if they
all grow, which is not likely, pull up
four or five stalks The seeds should
never be covered more than half an
inch deep, and grass and weeds must
be kept down until the plants are about
two feet high.
Now let US come back to the ques-
ton, WW 1t pay? Let US see. One
hundred and twenty gallons is very
common yield per acre as high as two
hundred gallons>were raised by sever
al farmers in Kishacoquillas Valley in
1865. Suppose you plant half an acre !;
if properly cultivated and harvested
you may confidently expect sixty gal
Ions, and if your soil is good and the
season favorable you may have eighty
or one hundred. But suppose you get
only forty-eight gallons and pay one
third for manufacturing; you still have
tbirty-two gallons left, and at seventy
five cents per gallon you have twenty-
four dollars aoorth Of syrup off half an
acre of land. But l have made the fig
ures very low. On good soil, with
proper care in cultivating and harvest.
ing, you will be just as likely to net
forty or fifty dollars worth of syrup of
your half acre [ have done it on more
than one-half acre.
Can sugar be made from Sorghum
Numerous attempts have been made
a few partially successful, others fail
ed. But Mr.. VIM. Clough, editor oi
the Sorgo Journal, has at length dis
covered a process which, according to
the published reports, is full of promise
to the Sorghum enterprise. A cores
pondent of the Independent speaks as
follows of his invention as exhibited
before the Ohio State Sorgo Associa
tion, at its lato meeting:
But the most interesting feature of the conven
ton was the exhibition by Mr.. VIM. Clough. editor o
the Sorgo Journal, Of his deodorzing and clari
flying process. This is of the most inportan
discoveries of the 18th century.
aUpon his gas-stove in the presence of the audience
he treated the miserable syrups which could b'
found in the collection of samples, and also thost
which had been clarified by the use of lime; and al
astonished at the enormous deposit OF llnpuri
ties, rendering syrups which before Opaque ant
of nauseating taste transparent and of the most del
cious sweet-n fact, pure simple syrup Syrups thu
treated crystze readily, that the convention fel
as if great progress had really been made, and tn
success of Sorgo culture fully establls In Vie'
of this discovery, and in fact that nearly every mem
| Der present had made more less Sorgo syrup las
year-large specimens of which were on exhibition
the convention passed unanimously the following
| resolutions
Rcsolued That the success of the past year il
manufacturing sugar from the northern cane give
unmistakabe evidence that it can be done utlmatel
with equal paying advantage with that OF making syi
= ups"
When our people once produce thei
own sugar and moiasses decided stel