Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1886-06-04
Sorghum.

Although sorghum is generally considered
an upstart thrusting itself into sugar cane So
ciety, it has claims to be considered the more
ancient and aristocratic of the two. Il is
said that sorghum, which is the dUIrd of the
East, was the plant originally used by the
Chinese in making sugar. The differences
between the two plants are many and vital,
despite their botanical grouping. The sugar
cane (Sdcchdrum 0DtcinaTuH Linn. y is a Pc
rennial plant, growing in favorable localities
sometimes for 80 years from the same roots,
propagated not by seed but from cuttings of
slow growth, and requiring often in the trop-
les from IA months to two years for its devel-
opment. The sorghum (S0Ighum Uulgare,
Pers.), which is really a cereal and much
more like maize than sugar-cane, is an annual,
grown from seed, and maturing often within
three months. The sugar cane is of thick and
sturdy growth, with good deal of woody
fibre in its outer envelope, and with tough
and dense internal structure. The sorghum
is taller and more slender, of a softer outer
structure and less dense pith. The sorghum,
unlike the sugar cane, is crowned with clus-
ter of edible seeds, the seed head" used as
food for men as we'll as for cattle. There are
a number of species of sugar cane, although
all are supposed to have developed by cult
walton from single progenitor, whose ha6i-
tat is unknown the varieties of the sorghum
are less marked, and are all definitely within
one species
Sorghum sugar making is, in this country,
rather matter of prophecy than of expert
ence yet there seems to be no good reason
why the work of the Department of Agricul-
ture, of which this industry is pet nursing
should not result in developing an important
interest.
The sugar sorghum is planted from sc ed in
April or May, and at first grows slowly, very
like its cousin the broom corn sorghum. The
botanists distinguish only one species, but the
farmer finds good deal of difference between
the Early Amber cane, which is the favorite,
the Orange, also much planted, Links Hy-
bird, the Honduras, Liberisn, and other kinds
which ripen later than the Early Amber and
are therefore less suited to high ATTITUDES.
After the plant gets a real start, it grows
wonderfully and with remarkable indepen-
dence of season and climate, in wet times or
dry times, when Indian corn would be drown
ed out or burned up, and from Minnesota to
Texas, where it has been known TO develop a
second crop from the stubble after the first
has been cut. Profitable growing for sugar
il, however, confined to lower latitudes than
at first supposed, and the isothermal lines of
7O' for the three summer months is now
thought by the best authorities to mark the
sugar limit, though syrup may be proitably
made further north. This includes Missouri
Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois-which led in
syrup production in the census year in the or
der named-Kansas, southern Indiana, etc.
as probable sugar producing states. The
crop ripens at the North in September and
October, and at its maturity presents a fine
picture, with its deep green LEAKAGE and the
red or dark tops of ripening seed. It's great
enemies are early frosts and the equinoctial
storm, which is apt to strike the plant Just as
it is ready to harvest, top-heRvy with its cone
of seed, and bend it to the ground. In 1888
the storm played sad havoc with the ripened
crop. The Western farmers, who grow most
ly for syrup, report yield of from 100 gal
Ions of syrup per acre up, costing about 1914
per acre to raise in addition to use of land
and outfit. AT 80 cents per gallon, this would
give profit of about $50 per acre but the
trouble is that this syrup must come into
competition with other syrups selling at
scarcely above half that price June Hdr.
1la,fo