230 N. H. STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



ter you may use from a half a tea-spoonful to two tea- 

 spoonfuls for every five gallons of juice, after the scum has 

 been removed. 



" The scum is used in the "West Indies for the manufac- 

 ture of rum. It may be also advantageously disposed of 

 as food for hogs. The quantity of saccharine matter left in 

 the begass renders it a nutritious food for stock. This 

 refuse, by leaching water through it, yields a saccharino 

 solution which may be fermented into beer or vinegar, and 

 may be distilled into whiskey and alcohol. It may be also 

 advantageously used to cover the cut canes in hot weath- 

 er, when it may be desired to have a large quantity kept at 

 the mill for days and weeks before being used. The con- 

 stant evaporation of the juice in the begass keeps the cano 

 beneath at a temperature so low as to prevent fermenta- 

 tion, as well as the drying of the cane ; it will also servo 

 to shield it from the frost. A suggestion has been made 

 to convert the ligneous fibre into paper. It certainly is a 

 better material for this purpose than much that is now 

 employed. It is, however, an object of minor importance 

 to the southern planter as yet. As a manure, the begass, 

 is evidently a most valuable article for its large amount of 

 phosphoric acid, added to the decomposing vegetable and 

 the other mineral matters which it contains, while the re- 

 maining portions of the saccharine juice readily induce a 

 fermentation which ends in putrefaction, and leaves the 

 mass in a fit state for the nourishment of plants. The 

 large quantities of mineral matter, and particularly the 

 phosplioric acid, which the cane in its growtli must remove 

 from the soil, necessarily imply that it will be an exhaust- 

 ing crop, since these materials certainly cannot be furnish- 

 ed by the atmospliere. This evil may, in a great part, bo 

 removed by carefully returning to the soil again the refuse 

 in form of manure. If otlier fertilizers be needed to re- 

 pair tlie waste, Mexican phospliatic guanos, which are now 

 oflcrcd at low prices, would doubtless be advantageous. 



