New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-12-19
SORGHUU SEED.

to quit.
SORGHUM SEED
The notable sugar tests instituted by General
lie Due, followed Ivy those at Rio 'irande, \. d.,
at Champaign. H., and elsewhere. have given
great announcement as to the practlcal sac
charine possibilities of sorghum; its eNrep-
tional worth for forage has been referred to III
our columns, certain mllcrs and house.
keepers South and West have demon
strated the culinary value of -four from its
seed as a eriddle-cfke substitute for buck
wheat-withOut the eruptivc, efl0rescent Gu
taneous effect OF that popular blood poison
and now Professor George II. Cook has
issued remarkable publication as 70
the importance Of the seed as feed for stock
That MODEST, faithful olicial-wlOse unpretend-
ing, helpful services these many vars have ben
Gifted May beyond the borders of his own State
-repOrts in Bulletin XIV. OF the New-Jersey
Agricultural Experiment Station certain facts
which, if verified by further experience, will
tend to make farmers all the more anxious to
admit sorghum to an honOred place in their
regular crop rotation.
The director refers at the outset to certain
data more or less clearly established in regard
to this neglected member OF the great grass
family, particularly its penetrating root habit
which enables it to find food in the subsOll, and
thus it is claimed, thrive on land specifically
too poor for the suIface-fecding maize and IN
consequence endure IA severe drouth with
out serious injury. He then says that the Am
Der variety yields on IN average from TWEEN
tv TO thirty bushels Of sced-with a posi-
bilitv of fifty bushcls-tO the acre, AMI that
the seed, when ground and freed from hulls,
seems to be entirely digcstble aud healthful for
dairy cows, has no objectionable influence on
either the color, taste or chemical compost
ton of the milk, and possesses milk-pro-
ducing power barely : per cent less than corn
meal, the great standby OF the stable.
These conclusions are based on Il
careful continuous test with three members
Of the farm herd, and the interesting
details are tabulatcd and explained with scien-
tiiic precision.
The significance Of the matter is made more
apparent by the statement-whlch we reprint
with the professors o.'n emphasis of itallc type
that the yield OF Amber seed and stalk IS
about the same as that of Indian corn; dW
after the Scc3e are ripe and hard the stalks
are still green, and apparently suitable Jor en-
Silage.r Should the plant indeed he found
adapted in that stage of its growth to the latter
purpose (and this question has already been
submitted 10 Il not yet concluded experiment
with twenty tons cut and crushed in silo), the
same acre may thus be made to yield, the same
season. from ten to fifteen tons of raatabIe,
nutritious fodder anu at least twenty To thirty
bushels of clean grain, almost identical IN COM
position and equal in weight to shelled corn, and,
as appears from the foregoing, very closely APP
preaching it in feeding yalue. Meanwhile 1t l.
perhaps safe to extend congratulations to Cen
eral william G.. lie DLc, the moderated mod
crn Apostle OF Sorghum. If Ohere are several
"ifsn vet, but fewer than there were) this
manv-namcd scmi-tropical plant does not dis
appoint the recently encouraged great expecta-
lions, it will appear that the rejected ex-COm-
missioner Of Agriculture bulded better than we
knew.
A deeper interest in the experiments al
luded TO in Fridays TRIBUNE will also be
aroused, and more profound regret at the
destruction of the sample plots will be telt,
rs the new uses 20 which sorghum is adapted
come TO he generally known. Some of these sixty
four varieties OF sorghum gathered from the
other side of the globe may excel the Amber IN
the yield and quality Of seed, which must
now be counted most important item in the
value of the crop. DR.. Loring thinks he
needs a good deal Of money to conduct his
Department proliably, but he asks for no
appropriation for further experiments with
sorghum. He my know enough already, or
perhaps he has sufficient money on hand 10 en-
able him to find ont all h needs to know. His
recent visit to the Canegrowers' Congress shows
hat heis beginning 10 appreciate the situation,
and he is to be congratulated for having
caught on to the rear end of the enterprise
before it was quite beyond his reach. His
next plroxysm of zeal should be directed to
The detection Of the man who moved down
the cane on his experimental plots in Wash
ingtOn. --