AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 189 



For fodder, the cane was too hard when dry — though by the aid of Blan- 

 chard's mill, (which he exjlained,) it was eaten by cattle with avidity. 



Prof. Mapes said that experience proves that sugar cane juice turns 

 acid very soon after being cut, while that of Chinese sugar cane, the sorg- 

 hum, may be kept a considerable length of time, and it will not acetify. I 

 have samples of the sugar made from the sorghum, equal in quality to the 

 best white refined sugar of the Stuarts. 



Mr. Olcott found the sorghum question important in Europe, whence he 

 has just arrived, and its superior importance here will soon become very 

 manifest by its magnitude and value. 



Prof. Mapes spoke of the sorghum as having too hard a skin to please 

 stock when it was dry — that Blanchard's new mill divides that skin into 

 filaments as fine as timothy hay, rendering it very palatable to stock. 

 That the operation of the steel disks of this mill is to slice up grain with- 

 out mashing the globules — so that the dough made of this flour rises with- 

 out leaven or yeast, and the bread sweeter than other bread and keeps 

 sweet a long time — has kept &o four months ! I have two of his mills in 

 operation as I want them, at my farm. 



The mimite. rings cut or rather sheared off from grain by this" disk mill, 

 fall on an agitated sifter which shakes out the flour and separates the 

 bran. 



Dr. Adamson, from South Africa, said that about 600 lbs, of sugar 

 could be obtained from cane, per acre. 



Prof. Mapes said that 1,500 lbs. per acre was yielded under favorable 

 circumstances. 



The club adopted for next meeting the subjects — By Mr. Olcott, "The 

 National Value of the Chinese Sugar-Cane;" by Prof. Mapes, ''Root 

 Feeding." 



The club then adjourned. 



H. MEIGS, Secretary. 



December 21,1858. 



Present — Rev. J. Adamson, late of South Africa ; Prof. James J. 

 Mapes, Rev. Benjamin Pike, of Jersey ; Fuller, Kavanaeh, Bruce, of 

 Willianisburgh ; Henry S. Olcott, Chilson, Prof. Nash, Provost, of Wil- 

 liamsburgh ; Lawton, of New Rochelle, and others — 3.3 members. 



Rev. Mr. Adamson in the chair. Henry Meigs, Secretary. 



The Chairman gave a letter to read on the Sorghum. Balfour, (Fish 

 river. South Africa,) October 13, 1832, to the Chairman, at Capetown. 



KAFFER REED— CHINESE SUGAR CANE AND AFRICAN 



CANES. 



The Rev. J. Adamson, recently from South Africa, where he has resided 

 twenty-six years, presented the following extracts from a letter received 

 by him in 1832, from the Rev. W. K. Thompson, from Balfour, (head of Fish 

 river, South Africa,) relative to the sugar cane of that region. He calls it the 



