154 ANNUAL REPORT. 



he keeps the material from which he makes vinegar. Into these 

 tanks he puts the skimmings and lets them stand there. I was 

 in his syrup house and I found his tank and its contents stand- 

 ing without any protection; he says he has let it stand out one 

 or two winters and says he has no trouble in making good vine- 

 gar the next season. I believe he says it freezes very consider- 

 ably; and yet it makes very good vinegar. 



Capt. Blakeley. I have a barrel of it myself and prefer it ta 

 anything else. 



Prof. Porter. I have found this utilization of a waste prod- 

 uct, one of the most profitable branches of the amber cane 

 industry, and in the line of the economy, so strongly urged by 

 PrOf. Henry, my practice has been to feed the skimmings from 

 the '4-aw" end of the pan to my hogs, and to save the skim- 

 mings from the "finishing" pan until enough had accumulated 

 to make a good ''run," when I diluted them with about six 

 parts of water and boiled down a second time. I thus obtained 

 a good but dark colored syrup which would keep for any length 

 of time, and constituted my vinegar "stock;" this, mixed with 

 ten ijarts of rainwater, and fermented in the usual way, will 

 furnish a vinegar of the greatest strength, purity and flavor. It 

 takes about one year to make a prime article of vinegar by the 

 natural process, but it is easily and cheaply done and gives a 

 product which commands the highest price in the market. 



I wish to suggest a word of warning in feeding the skimmings 

 to the hogs: they must not be allowed to become too sour. I had 

 a little experience of that kind once which I will relate. I had 

 given instructions to my men to feed skimmings regularly to the 

 hogs and not to let them stand too long; they let them stand 

 forty-eight hours and then fed them. The result was what might 

 have been expected; you never saw a more drunken set of ani- 

 mals ! Three of them were dead drunk, so much so that they 

 never recovered, but the rest of them came to. It was simply 

 because the alchoholic fermentation had set it, and feeding it 

 then had simply made the hogs beastly drunk. 



Mr. Ditus Day, of Farmington. I would say that I have had 

 very good success this year in making syrup, — probably the best 

 I have ever made. In regard to feeding the skimmings I have 

 had a little experience; it was two years ago. I trusted a hired 

 man to feed the hogs and when I came home one Sunday, (I had 

 cautioned him not to feed too much,) I found two of the hogs — I 

 had six of them — were so drunk that they couldn't move. One 



