repaid its cost, while in addition to the foregoing, the flour obtained from the seeds was found to furnish a highly nutritive, wholesome article of diet for man. Dr. Adrian Sicard, to whom the agricultural world is indebted for a very exhaustive analysis of the Chinese sugar-cane, has established, by conclusive researches, that its leaves are also specially adapted for the manufacture of paper, as well as for various colours or dye stuffs. As to the remunerative value of the Sorgho, it is more than 230 per cent. more productive than beet-root, which in France produces on the average 2160 kilogrammes per hectare, while the Sorgho makes a return of 5000 kilogrammes.
The mode of cultivating this useful plant differs in no respect, as we repeatedly had occasion to observe, from that of maize or Indian corn. The season for sowing varies with the temperature of the country, between the months April and July. The seed when sown in the beginning of April will be ripe about the middle of August, or in 135 days, while that sown in mid-July will not be ripe before the end of November, or about 140 days. In France the experiment has been made of bathing the seeds in tepid water for periods varying from 24 to 48 hours before sowing, which resulted in a much more speedy bringing forward of the plant. In like manner experiments were made of sowing the seeds with and without their husk, the result of which was that the former took 15 days, and the latter only 10 days to sprout. It is recommended
to plant the seeds in furrows sufficiently separated from each other according to the conditions of soil and irrigation, so far as is possible.
The period of germination of the Sorgho is rather long, but once that period is passed, the most favourable results are sure to follow, even should the most unusual alternations of temperature ensue, provided the thermometer does not descend below 27°.5 Fahr. The Sorgho requires about five months to attain its full ripeness, when it is usually of a pale-yellow colour, streaked with red. It is occasionally subject to different maladies, some of which attack the root, others the pith. In like manner the larvæ of certain noxious insects have been remarked on occasional specimens. But the origin of all these drawbacks has been as yet far too little inquired into, and they are of too rare occurrence to permit of any definite information respecting them being as yet available.
On the whole, the cultivation of the Sorgho may be regarded as eminently successful in the South of France, as well as in Pennsylvania, U. S. (which has a much severer climate than Venetia, Dalmatia, or the lower course of the Danube). Very probably we may also succeed in naturalizing the Sorgho in suitable parts of Austria, and introducing there the cultivation on a commensurate scale[173] of a plant,
which bids fair not merely to prove far more profitable in cultivation than any other member of the vegetable kingdom in any part of the earth, but at the same time seems destined at no distant period to be the means of supplying the civilized world with one of its most vitally necessary articles of food, by means of free white labour, without the assistance of slavery![174]
Another plant, which it seems likely might be advantageously introduced into the southern districts of Europe, is
the Mo-chok, one of the most graceful kinds of bamboo found in the forests of China, which grows in greatest luxuriance on the limestone slopes of the province of Tschi-Kiang, in a climate ranging between 90°.5 in summer, and 20°.3 (Fahr.) in winter. The erect, smooth, elegant stem shoots up to a height of from 60 to 80 feet. The lower part of the tree is usually free from branches, which usually begin to spring from the trunk about 20 feet from the ground, and are very delicately leaved. These and two other species, the Long-sin-chok and the Hu-chok, are used in the manufacture of sieves, baskets, furniture, &c., while the tender shoots form a most nutritious and delicately flavoured vegetable. The stem of the plant is moreover available for the manufacture of paper.[175]
Writing paper is manufactured from it as well as packing paper, and one very coarse quality is mingled with the mortar by the Chinese masons. Mr. Fortune has introduced the Mo-chok into China, where, especially in the north-west provinces, it promises to come on well upon the slopes of the Himalaya.
Of the other plants which grow in China, which are not indeed suited for transplanting to a colder climate, yet merit