A primitive sorghum-mill in the mountains of Haywood. Picture by Elliot
Lyman Fisher.
"Stir-offs” arc sociable sorghum af¬
fairs. Young people gather at the
sorghum mill, and when the syrup
reaches the right consistency, it is
pulled into sorghum-taffy. Young fry
also thrust sticks through apples, dip
the fruit in the boiling syrup . . . and
yum. yum!
Scientists say that no matter how
humble home-made 'lasses might
seem, it's nutritious and a good addi¬
tion to your diet.
Don. who lives near Taylorsville,
doesn't know that, but this winter he’ll
get a lot of the stuff poured over hot
buttered cornbread.
In Raleigh, it's otwoys
THE SIR WALTER
More than
о
hotel — A North
Carolina institution
•
Finest accommodations
Air-conditioned Coffee Shop
The center of everything
Long Sweetenin’
Sorghum is a multi-million dollar
crop in North Carolina.
By BILL SHARPE
That’s a million-dollar lick Don Mal¬
lard, on the front cover, is giving his
finger. Under his arms arc two jugs
of valuable stuff, sorghum — "long
sweetening" to North Carolinians in
a score of mountain and Piedmont
counties where the cane syrup is a
household staple. And now’s the time
of harvesting and "stir-offs."
More people by a long shot have
never tasted sorghum than have tasted
it, but if the class will come to atten¬
tion we’ll tell you that 55.000 acres
were planted to sorghum in this state
last year, and that 10,000 acres of it
were harvested for syrup, with a yield
of 72 gallons per acre, or a total of
720,000 gallons. That’s a lot of syrup,
and at the 1950 price of $2.05 per
gallon, the syrup part of the crop was
worth $1,476,000.
And that's not all, for sorghum is fit
for man or beast. In 1950 Tar Heel
farmers had 16,000 acres in sorghum
used for forage, with a total value of
$875.000. and another 29.000 acres
of sorghum grain, with a value of
$1,166.000, a grand total for the crop
of over
З'Л
million dollars.
Agricultural officials say the trend,
however, is away from Don's delicacy,
with less of the crop going into syrup
and more into grain. Sorghum is a
sort of poor man’s 'lasses, and acre¬
age tends to increase sharply during
depressions. It is used about every
way that any syrup is used including
spoonfuls of it in coffee.
Along about now, motorists often
sec farmers crushing the cane in horse-
drawn presses, the horse pulling a
sweep around and around. The juice
from the cane is cooked in long trays
and the boiling syrup flows from one
level to another as attendants skim off
the undesirable top. Usually one fam¬
ily in a neighborhood has a press,
which is used by all the nearby farm¬
ers.
IN THE
Washington picture
Conveniently
close to everything
. . . comfortable as
your own home.
к
7Ac LAFAYETTE
In the Shadow of fhe
White House
16th st. N.W. at Eye
Continental Cuisine
7/te
CARROLL ARMS
fn the Shadow of fhe Capifoi
1st sl. N.E. ot C
Dine With the Famous
CHASTLETON
I*'# Adjacent to Embassy How
~ 16th st. at R, N.W.
In the Heart of Everything Social
7ltc CARLYLE
F acing the Capitol Plaza
500 North Capitol St.
A Few Minutes From Everything
CAPITOL HOTEL ENTERPRISES
G. H. Parriih, Pfti
THE STATE. NOVEMBER lO. 1951
7
