TRAXSACTIOXS. 235 



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making syrup, I cut from 36 stalks,, (tlie product of 6 liills,) 

 the seed panicles and two feet of the tops, and with an or- 

 dinary hay-cutter reduced the remainder to chips, the juice 

 freely dripping from the machine in the process. "With a 

 hoop and follower and the three-inch iron screw of my 

 standing press, three quarts of juice were obtained there- 

 from, which was immediately boiled down in a porcelain 

 kettle, after straining throuirh a woolen bag, and yielded 

 over a pint of syrup of the thickness of sugar-house mo- 

 lasses. This syrup has been kept bottled in a warm room, 

 and unstopped almost every day, and at the present time 

 is entirely sweet and free from fermentation. It is of a 

 light, clear appearance, extremely pleasant in flavor, and 

 has been pronounced by very many who have tasted and 

 examined it, preferable to any southern syrup. At the 

 meeting of the Massachusetts Legislative Agricultural So- 

 ciety, for the consideration of this product, a specimen of 

 it was exhibited, as also of that made by Col. Peters of 

 Georgia, from the same plant, and the decision was univer- 

 sally in favor of the New Hampshire syrup — disproving 

 the theory advanced by some, that the plant is better adap- 

 ted to the south than to the north, inasmuch as the yield 

 per cent, of my experiment compared equally favorable 

 with his. Dr. D. Jay Brown, of the Patent Office, (to whom 

 I forwarded a specimen,) stated before the United States 

 Agricultural Society, that " syrup of a superior quality had 

 been presented to him from New Hampshire, equally as 

 good as that extracted from the perennial cane." The 

 yield of syrup, as per ray experiment, would be upwards of 

 300 gallons to the acre, and the weight of the green plants 

 probably from 10 to 15 tons. 



The superiority of this plant for fodder, I deduce from 

 the fact that stalks, which have laid in my barn as fully ex- 

 posed to the air as possible, up to the present time, yield 

 juice very sweet and rich on being twisted in the hand — so 

 rich, that we can* readily credit the story of a gentleman 



