The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-06-01
4 Great plant Family.

In the great natural division of plant
life there are few or no families of more
interest and genuine value to the tiller
of the soil in one way or another in
one place or another, than the great
family of the sOrghums.
have been cultivating one or the other
of its numerous varieties since 1871, TWEEN
ty-tive years ago, when for the first time
! procured a handful of Chicken corn
being then enthused or infatuated with
the idea of making poultry growing a
more pleasing and more profitable occu-
patton than it then appeared to be- No,
that l have been steadily and uninter-
ruptedly growing chickens and eggs or
likewise growing the sorghum in all these
years. But II amounts to very nearly
that. There have been intermissions IN
both, but / can safely say that ! have
done both at least eighteen out of the
twenty-five years.
1 found at the start that poultry keep
ing, Whether Tor eggs or for meat, was
only TO be made truly profitable by the
individual who grew his own chicken food
and grew il abundantly, al that
The next thing was to find the very
best thing to grow for that purpose /
have sought that information patiently
ana zealouslY. / do not mind saying right
here that l cut my wisdom teeth almost
at the start, so far as it relates to the
very early and wise conclusion that In
dian corn in any form was about the Door
est thing that a poultry keeper could
make use of satisfactorily. / have never
had cause to question the truth of that
early conclusion For all time so much
of 1t as l was permitted to make obser-
walton of the staple and almost exclusive
reliance of the southern housewife or
househusband as to that matter was
'dough'-Indian meal dough. 1t was dish,
ed out to the young chicks and TO the
old alike. II they, the poultry, did we'll
it was evident corn meal dough was a
proper food. If the chicks all died any
one year why it was the cholera. Every
q liaH % Of a1,, l. =
was seemingly the only known disease.
This is pretty much the case now in the
backWoOds especially
/ reasoned, as reasonable DeODle Oust
always reason, that the natural food of
fowls, whether wild or domestic was
grain and insects, the insects that nature
put it in their power to secure, and the
whole rounded grain as nature furnishes
II to us in forest or field.
90 not want to multiply words. I
went in search of chicken corn" found
1t in the variety of sorghum. Sorghum
Is its common name. l planted it a cOu-
pie of years, perhaps, without suspecting
that there existed any other of a similar
character That was simple ignorance,
lack of information, etc. A quarter of
century has dispelled that ignorance,
N measure. nave no doubt there
are yet many varieties or sub-vdrieties
that are yet to be brought to the front
and doomed, too, as if it-whichever one
It may be-was the only thing worth
having under heaven. The "Kafir" is on
the taps now A thousand tongues,
Dig as catalogues, are protesting that it is
the chief Of sorghums. of ten thousand
sorghums, and altogether and exclusive
ly lovely. Its praises will be sung for a
year or two, and then it must give place
to some other old variety brought for
ward as a new discovery and super OF
to everything else of this wonderful fam
lily OF plants. Well seedsmen must live
and the credulous must always exist a
man or woman either is to be regarded
a fool because he or she believes what
hold.
This great family IS divided into two
grand divisions. One is the saccharine
or sugar yielding sorghum, the other is
the non-saccharine sorghum. OF course
the former is the more intrins!cally val
liable, but the latter, for a certain pur-
pose, may very properly be esteemed the
more desirable. The type Of the sugar
scrghums may be found in the amber
or orange varieties. There are ever so