238 N. n. STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



THE CHINESE SUGAR -CANE AND SUGAR MILLS. 



To the Secretary of the N. H. Agricultural Society : 



The present high prices of sugar and molasses, have 

 produced a very general desire to experiment with the 

 newly introduced Chinese Sugar Cane. The favorable 

 results in the manufacture of molasses from the juice of 

 this cane, in various sections of the country, the past season, 

 seems to hold out great encouragement to us, even here ia 

 the Granite State, that at least, molasses, if not sugar, can 

 be profitably made for family use. The past season, the 

 cane was successfully grown in various sections of the 

 State ; and it is confidently asserted that it can be suc- 

 cessfully grown wherever Indian corn fully matures. 



There is much inquiry respecting the form or construction 

 of a mill for crushing or grinding the cane. Many persons 

 seem to think some kind of a press is necessary to extract 

 the juice after the cane is ground. This is all a mistake. 

 Mills for crushing and at the same time expressing the 

 juice, can be built for, perhaps, one-fourth of the cost of a 

 good cider mill. I will here give a description of some 

 efficient and cheaply constructed mills, in this and some 

 other countries. The descriptions may aid us much in put- 

 ting up crushing mills the coming season. Perhaps it 

 miglit be well for a few persons in the same neigliborhood 

 to "club together," and build a mill, and procure sheet iron 

 pans for boiling the juice, all of which might be readily 

 moved from farm to farm. It may not bo advisable to go 

 into large expenditures till the thing has been more fully 

 tested. ' 



Sugar cane is grown to some extent in some portions of 

 Mississippi. By the last census returns, it appears that 

 the crop of 1849, was equal to 388 hogslieads of sugar, and 

 about 18,000 gallons of molasses; many of the most sub- 

 stantial planters making all the sugar and molasses required 



