PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS CLUB. o51 



new wuy, so that it is better. If this is so, I would like to know 

 it, and in particular if sugar can be made. 



Mr. N. C. Meeker. — The only important improvement consists 

 in the use of shallow evaporators mi'de by Cook and many others, 

 variously moditied. Without these sorghum would be foi-gotten. 

 William Clough, editor of TIlq Sorgo JoiirKcd, estimates the yield 

 in this country at 35,000,000 of gallons a year. This should be 

 worth $15,000,000. Most of the sorghum is made in the States 

 west of New York, and in the South. The yield is very large in 

 Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina and Kentucky. In Wiscon- 

 sin, Iowa and Northern Illinois the culture is wide, and extensive 

 machine shops are engaged in making mills and evaporators. 

 Some parties claim they can make sugar and have invested largely. 

 The subject needs to be investigated by scientific and patient men. 

 Commissioner Newton should have invested a portion of that $162,- 

 000 Govermnent money in this interest. The crop has become as 

 firnily established as the potatoe. Many families always use sorg- 

 hum on buckwheat cakes, and the children do not care if it runs 

 over on their potatoes. It is superior for ginger and other plain 

 sweet cakes. Used with good buttermilk, soda and eggs, and 

 wisely baked, it is little inferior to sugar. Although the quality 

 has improved, the best has a slight acid or raw taste. But this is 

 sweetened a good deal by the thought that it is made on one's 

 own land, or in the neighborhood. The children have faith in it 

 that they could not have if it came from New Orleans. Sorghum 

 is considered more healthful than tropical molasses, because it 

 contains all the saccharine substance of the cane. Plantation 

 molasses is a sediment of suijar filtered throuo;h animal charcoal, 

 blood, and sometimes poisonous chemicals. 



An Industrious Lady. 

 Mr. Isaac Van Tassel, Manlius Centre, N. Y., says we have a 

 neighbor, a widow lady, Mrs. MaryHodgman, i^Q years old, and in 

 the last year she knit 23 pairs of fringed mittens, wove 500 yards of 

 rag carpeting, 1,000 yards of flannel, and spun eighty pounds of 

 wool, two runs to the pound. This was up to November 1. Up 

 to January 1, she has woven 200 yards more. In the mean time 

 she has taken care of the milk of two cows, and done her house- 

 work. 



Bee Pasture. 

 Mr. Quimby, St. Johnsville, Montgomery county, N. Y : "I 



