Sorghum

“ Sorghum, sor′gum, n. a genus of grasses, also called Durra millet and Indian millet, or Sorgho grass. It is closely allied to sugar-cane and beard-grass. [Sp. sorgo—Low L. sorgum, surgum, suricum, prob. an East Ind. word.]
Sorites, sō-rī′tēz, n. an argument composed of an indeterminate number of propositions, so arranged that the predicate of the first becomes the subject of the second, and so on till the conclusion is reached, which unites the subject of the first with the predicate of the last. ”

“ In the latter case in the summer of 1900, I obtained from a plot of many hundred stalks including field-corn, sweet-corn, pop-corn, sorghum, Kaffir corn and broom corn only three cases of smutted plants. These were of sweet-corn, both the tassel and ear being affected. The previous year about the same per cent. of successful inoculations were obtained. But in the greenhouse the experiments have uniformly resulted in the production of a considerable number of smutted stalks of sorghum and occasionally an infected plant of maize. ”

“ On January 1st, 1900, several pots in the Botanical greenhouse of the Ohio State University were planted to sorghum, Kaffir corn, maize, sweet-corn and pop-corn. The seeds were previously moistened and mixed with a large quantity of head-smut of sorghum taken from smutted sorghum plants also from maize infected with the same fungus. This species was named Ustilago reiliana by Kühn in 1868 from specimens collected in Egypt.
The plants developed rapidly and normally, though the stems were slender and did not reach the normal height. ”

“ The sorghum occasionally does not yield seed, and is then the Sorghum saccharatum, for the stalk contains abundance of sugar, and is much relished by the natives. Now that so much has failed to yield seed, being indeed just in flower, the stalks are chewed as if sugar-cane, and the people are fat thereon; but the hungry time is in store when these stalles are all done. They make the best provision in their power against famine by planting beans and maize in moist spots. ”

“ People all busy planting, transplanting, or weeding; they plant cassava on mounds prepared for it, on which they have sown beans, sorghum, maize, pumpkins: these ripen, and leave the cassava a free soil. The sorghum or dura is sown thickly, and when about a foot high—if the owner has been able to prepare the soil elsewhere—it is transplanted, a portion of the leaves being cut off to prevent too great evaporation and the death of the plant.
17th January, 1868.—The Wanyamwesi and people of Garaganza say that we have thirteen days' march from this to the Tanganyika Lake. ”

“ KELLERMAN ON SORGHUM SMUT.
Explanation of Plate 2.—Ustilago or Cintractia reiliana. Figure 1: The foliicolous form occurring on sweet-corn, the panicle not yet emerged, but the smut on upper leaves in sight. Figure 2: Same as in Figure 1, showing a later stage of maturity. Figure 3: An infected sorghum plant in the greenhouse, photographed in 1899, the panicle smutted. Figure 4: An infected sorghum plant, grown in the greenhouse in 1900, the central panicle sound, the later (side) panicles smutted.
A LIST OF HEMIPTERA COLLECTED IN THE VICINITY
OF BELLAIRE, OHIO.
Herbert Osborn. ”

“ The object of the work reviewed in this report is to ascertain as many facts as possible in relation to the development and actual composition of the stalks and juices of the different varieties of sorghum and corn which can be successfully grown in the United States. The experiments were generally directed to the demonstration of the period at which the juice of each particular variety of sorghum or corn contained the most crystallizable sugar which could be profitably separated. ”

“ Several varieties of sorghum are cultivated in Asia and in Africa; for instance, cernuus with drooping [Pg 384] panicles, mentioned by Roxburgh, and which Prosper Alpin had seen in Egypt; bicolor, which in height resembles the saccharatus; and niger and rubens, which also seem to be varieties of cultivation. None of these has been found wild, and it is probable that a monograph would connect them with one or other of the above-mentioned species. ”

“ Next to the sorghum stands the penicillaria, or Arabian “dokhn,” to which much attention is devoted, and which is cultivated here much more freely than in the northern Soudan. Sown somewhat later than the sorghum, somewhat later it comes to maturity.
A second substitute on the land for sorghum is a meagre grain, the Eleusine coracana. By the Arabians it is called telaboon, and by the Abyssinians tocusso; it is only grown on the poorest soils and where the ground is too wet to admit of any better crop. The grain of this is very small and generally black, and is protected by a hard thick skin ”

“ Atchley wants to try sorghum next winter, I think if she will go to some of her colonies of bees in warm, dry weather in October—some that have plenty of bees and not much honey—and raise the front end of the hive a little higher than the back, and pour in the pure sorghum just a little for one or two evenings, to get them started to eating it, then increase a little more, feeding every evening, I think in a week or so her bees will have plenty of sealed stores to last them through the winter—if they should live that long. ”

“ The head-smut of sorghum is not to be confused with another species that occurs on the same host. The one now referred to is a grain-smut, that is, the panicle as a whole is not included, but the individual grains become smutted. This species has been called Ustilago sorghi, but Mr. Clinton regards it as a Cintractia, namely, Cintractia sorghi-vulgaris (Tul.) Clint. It is more common than the former, occurring often on sorghum and broom corn. ”

“ Corn is more commonly used, and in some sections sweet sorghum is given an important place. The aim should be to grow soiling foods that will be ready for feeding in that succession that will provide food through all the summer and autumn. ”

“ The owner of the portable sorghum mill sometimes took his pay for its use in sorghum, if there was no money to be had. He was paid too for the use of his team in hauling the mill to the cane patch of the neighbor who had engaged it, and he himself sometimes tarried to help set it up. A small boy was sometimes pressed into service to urge the patient mule on its monotonous course around and around pulling the beam that turned the mill.
Sorghum-making had its lighter side. The young folks especially found fun in seeing a guileless fellow step into 119 the skimming hole concealed by cane stalks. ”

“ There is no difference between Kaffir corn and Egyptian corn so far as feeding goes. They are both sorghums. There is a danger in pasturing on young sorghums, because stock is often killed from overeating it, and they are quite apt to do this when they come upon it from dry feed. If you cut and wilt the young sorghum, or if it is fed sparingly with hay, etc., it becomes innocent of injury. After the sorghum has obtained considerable growth, it also loses its dangerous character. ”

“ Wiley suggests in each State the trial of two acres divided into ten plots—five for sorghum, four for beets, and one for corn—to test for purposes of comparison the general fertility of the soil and the character of the season. The Government ought to carry on for a series of years the process of selection of sorghum seed in order to secure an improvement in the quality of the cane.
THE COLD SPELL.
The cold weather of last week seems to have extended over nearly the entire North American Continent. Nothing for severity has been known to equal it during a long series of years. ”

“ Midway between the sorghum and the penicillaria must be reckoned the maize of the country, which only grows in moderate quantity, and is here generally cultivated as a garden vegetable in the immediate proximity of the huts. The Madi tribe of the Mittoo are the only people who seem to cultivate it to any great extent. ”

“ You could get most out of the land you mention during the hot season by growing Kafir corn or milo, cutting for hay before the plant gets too far advanced. If your land can be flooded and takes water well, so that you can wet it deeply before plowing, the sorghum seed can be broadcast and the crop cut with the mower while the stalks are not more than half an inch in diameter. ”

“ A very large and important genus of grasses, found in nearly all parts of the world. It includes the lemon grass of Ceylon and the beard grass, or broom sedge, of the United States. The principal subgenus is Sorghum, including A. sorghum and A. halepensis, from which have been derived the Chinese sugar cane, the Johnson grass, the Aleppo grass, the broom corn, and the durra, or Indian millet. Several East Indian species, as A. nardus and A. schœnanthus, yield fragrant oils, used in perfumery. ”

“ Maize is harvested for silage when the cobs are well filled, and the grain is beginning to glaze; at this stage a normal crop will yield about 20 tons greenstuff per acre. Sorghum will produce about 15 tons, and barley and vetches or peas about 10 tons per acre. Wheat and oats are often grown in order to be cut for hay, and make an excellent fodder. ”

“ The sweet sorghums are grown for making sirup, but principally for forage and hay, and yield heavily, from five to fifteen tons per acre. The seed being somewhat bitter is not entirely relished by animals, but it finds a ready market for seeding purposes. For hay about a bushel of seed is sown to the acre, and for fodder and seed about ten pounds per acre is planted in rows and cultivated. ”

“ The company would sit around on the ground, each in whatever position was comfortable. Liberal portions of bread and sorghum molasses formed the dessert, and after a while so indispensable did the sorghum grow that we dubbed it the "staff of life." ”

“ This is done, and the pent-up waters released on their beneficent mission, in the first half of August.60 In November, when the inundation has subsided, wheat, barley, and sorghum are sown. The time of harvest varies with the district, falling about a month later in the north than in the south. In Upper or Southern Egypt barley is reaped at the beginning of March, wheat at the beginning of April, and sorghum about the end of that month.61
The events of the agricultural year were probably celebrated with religious rites. ”

“ The grasses and small grains do best on cool, firm soils holding eighteen to twenty-two per cent. of water.
Sorghum or "Molasses Cane" grows best on good corn soil, while the sugar cane of the Gulf States requires a soil with twenty-five per cent. of water for best growth.
While the amount of water which a soil will hold is determined largely by texture, it is also considerably influenced by the amount and frequency of rainfall and the location of the soil as to whether it be upland or bottom land. ”

“ We now passed on through a country covered by farmsteads, repeatedly crossing fields of sorghum-stubble. The stalks, fifteen feet in length, which lay everywhere scattered on the ground, were a great impediment to our progress. The corn here cultivated is the largest form of the species; it takes nine months to ripen, and the stem in consequence becomes so hard and woody that it is no more like our European straw than their stubble-fields are like ours. ”

“ Sugar, therefore, though nominally more valuable than cotton per acre, is more costly in the long-run. It is watered every twelve or fifteen days. The other crops are the summer and flood sorghum, grown on the berms or in tracts within the basins, and irrigated by shadoofs and water-wheels about once every ten [42] days; and the wheat, beans, clover, and barley, in the basins. The cereals are usually not watered at all, but the clover follows the same course as in Lower Egypt. ”

“ Kaffir corn is not soil enriching. It has no such character. It probably depletes the soil just as much as an ordinary corn or hay crop. It is a good food to continue a milking period into the dry season, but you must be careful not to allow your cattle to get too much green sorghum, for it sometimes produces fatal results. We do not know anything which you can grow during the summer without irrigation which would contribute to the fertility of your land. If you had water and could grow clover or some legume during the summer season, the desired effect on the soil would be secured. ”

“ In [Pg 253] sowing merely for a hay crop, it is a good practice to mix sorghum, corn, soy beans, or millet with the cowpeas. The mixed hay is more easily harvested and more easily cured than unmixed cowpea hay. Shortly after seeding, it pays to run over the land lightly with a harrow or a weeder in order to break any crust that may form.
Mowing should begin as soon as the stalks and the pods have finished growing and some of the lower leaves have begun to turn yellow. An ordinary mower is perhaps the best machine for cutting the vines. ”

“ They found a road running east and west, which boasted a milestone that gave no indication as to the region across which they were feeling their way like the blind. There were, however, some hedges of mulberry-trees, and further on a field of sorghum, which enabled them to allay their hunger, or rather to cheat the wants of their stomachs. ”

“ So rich is the soil, so favorable are the normal climatic conditions, that wheat attains a high degree of perfection; while, besides its growth of cereals, including a phenomenal annual corn-crop and all the farm-products found in the other states, it raises cotton, hay, barley, potatoes, all kinds of vegetables, broom-corn, castor-beans, sorghum, peanuts and melons, in addition to a wide variety of fruits, including peaches, grapes, strawberries and many other small fruits. ”