Rensselaer Union, Volume 5, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 June 1873 — Cultivation of Sorghum. [ARTICLE]

Cultivation of Sorghum.

A Pennsylvania farmer, WTiting to the New York Tribune upon some experiments on the cultivation of sorghum, says: So little has been said of late upon the cultivation of sorghum that I am tempted to believe that it has ceased to bq considered a matter of agricultural importance. However this may be, there are doubtless those who still grow it (or the kindred plant, Chinese sugar cane), and to such I would like to make a suggestion that will prove,' I think, of considerable practical importance. I would advise the breaking or otherwise marring the seed stalk or head so that seed could by no possibility mature, and by so doing necessarily exhaust a very large per cent, of the saccharine matter of the plant in the formation of th<f starch of the seed. I am led to make this suggestion from observations made while experimenting in syrup-making from the stalks of sweet corn. I found that by breaking off the incipient ears as they appeared, a far larger yield and a much richer sap was obtained than when the plant was suffered to mature its seed, and this would doubtless he the same with the plants referred to. Nor is this all; I think I may go further and predict that plants so treated would furnish a sap that would readify yield granulated sugar. To my apprehension the formation of the starch necessarily exhausts, to a great degree, that portion of the sap that crystal izes in sugar making. The true cane, as I understand, matures no seed, or is used before the seed is matured, its propagation being by suckers or sprouts. The sap of the maple will not make sugar after the buds start, though it yields a rich syrup; proving tnat the formation of lignin or wood fiber, which chemically is nearly identical with jtarch, exhausts that portion of the saccharine matter which previously crystallized. Both starch and lignin are readily reconverted into granulated sugar, differing, it is true, somewhat from common sugar being what is known as grape sugar, still, this very’ fact would seem to confirm the idea that in their formation nature used but some particular parts of the sap of the plant. —“Remarkable instances of canine sagacity' 1 are generally too much for us, but here is one related by an Eastern newspaper (which must, therefore, be true), and which has the - appearance of probability. “The other day,” so begins the newspaper, “a gentleman transacting business in this village, left his horse attached to a chaise tied under a shed. Remaining with the horse was a coach-dog, who took advantage of his master’s absence to enjoy a hasty nap in the vehicle. Im the meantime, the horse somehow broke away from hie fastening, and started off at a furious gallop. This awakened the dog, who at once realizing the state of affairs, attempted to seize the reins with his teeth, hilt was unable to do so owing to their being covered by an overcoat. Fortunately, however, the reins fell from the oarriage on to the ground, when the dbg, with singular presence of mind, leaped nimbly after them, caught, them in his mouth, reined the horse to a standstill, and held the reins firmly until he delivered them, with a graceful wag of the tail, to a stranger, whom, under ordinary circumstances, he would not have allowed to approach his master’s property,”