1838] 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



697 



pie has) a slightly acid ta.^te ; bur ihat is always 

 ppiToptible in iho conimo!! cane-innlnpscs, wliere 

 no lime has been used in the process ol' making it, 

 to oorret^t its acidity. After reiiiaining Fome lime 

 in the vessel which contains it, I understand, from 

 inilisputable aiilhorily, Ihat the persimmon-molus- 

 Dr. Brnianiin S. Barton's 'Collections' part 1st, I ses deposites a substance precisely similar to that 

 Piure llih and pari 2d, pa.re 5-2(1. See also, Pro- which we find at the bottom ol hogsheads of the 

 fessor Woodhouse's 'Inaugural Dissertation' on | cane-molasses. This substance is-sugar, capa- 



A tree, having so many peculiar advantages, 

 ought to bec:iltivated by every farmer in Virginia. 

 Two acres ol" grourui in persimmon trees, would 

 alford sustenance lor hoo-s, and other anmials, from 

 October to January, three months. For a more 

 particular accoinif of this tree. I reler the reader to 



this subject. 



Wii.MAM B. SanTn. 

 Cumberland, Dec. I2lh. 1837. 



For tlie Farmers' Register. 

 MOLASSES AND SUGAR FROM PERSIMMONS. 



Dear .Sir— Although, in this hobby-horse-ical 

 acre, every man who recommends a new thing, 

 incurs the risk of being suspected to make a hobby 

 of it, I shall venture to slate to you two interesting 

 facts, as I think them, relative to the persimnjon : 

 facts which are certainly new to me, although iii- 

 miliar to several old people, with whom I have 

 lately conversed on the subject. I do this upon 

 the principle, that if I— a sexagenarian, have been 

 ignorant of this matter, until a few weeks ago — 

 many — if not all younger persons— may be equally 

 ignorant ; and that the reverse of the law-maxim, 

 ^ de minimis nnn curat lex,'' should always gov- 

 ern the true friends ol" husbandry and political 

 economy. 



I had long known that the wood of this very 

 common tree in Virginia, was equal to any fire- 

 jrior to it tor making 



wood ; that none was supe 



plane-stocks and shoe-lasts; that the inner bark 



makes a pretty yellow dye ; that a good substitute I clothes, good soup, candles and combs 



blc by purification — nay, without ?<— of beiifg very 

 useful and airrceable for conmion purposes, to our 

 negroes ; produced too, at a less expeiice than we 

 inciu-in purchasing the lowest priced cane-sugar. 

 In by-uone times, f perlectly lecollect, that, in 

 clearing land, it was the universal practice to leave 

 all the'"persim.mon trees standing ; and why they 

 should now be extirpated I'rrtm our fields, I cannot 

 understand, unless it be to show our contempt for 

 ancient usages. They certainly injure any crop 

 which grows under them, less, (if at all,) than 

 any other tree, while they will greatly over-pay 

 that injury — even admitting it to be certain— by 

 ihe various uses to which the wood and the l"ruit 

 may be applied. These are so multilbrm, and 

 woiild seem so marvellous, I think, to any one 

 who had not heard of them belbre, as to be almost 

 as incredible as the hoax, which I once heard a 

 cute Kentuckian, that had been travelling " down 

 east" in search of adventures, play off, upon a 

 green-horn acquaintance from his native state, 

 who had come as far as Washington, " to see the 

 toorZf/," and pick up wonders to carry home. The 

 hoaxer told him, that he had seen, in Yankee iand, 

 a late invention, called a mutton machine, into 

 which, if a live, fat sheep were thrown, the fleece, 

 flesh, suet, and horns, would, in rapid succession, 

 be returned to you in ready-made broad clotfi 



Yet the 



for ink might be made of the green fruit and 

 leaves ; that the ripe fi-uit was greedily and most 

 beneficially eaten by horses, hogs, cattle and sheep; 

 that} it would make beer, which, after being pro- 

 perly hopped and bottled, I prefer to any cham- 

 paigne I ever tasted — much as the assertion may 

 horrify our dandy-wine-bibbers — and that it would 

 produce more brandy per bushel, than any other 

 fruit — for it contains so much of the alcoholic prin- 

 ciple as never to freeze — brandy loo, which many 

 deem equal to that distilled from apples or peaches. 

 But it was a matter never even " dreamt of in my 

 philosophy" — although I might have known it — 

 that the two first runnings~of the beer may be 

 converted — by boiling down, in a copper-kettle, 

 into very good molasses, at the rate of a gallon 

 from less than a bushel of the fi-uit — and that the 

 third watering of the casks would produce excel- 

 lent vinegar for table use, although too dark for 

 pickling. 



In regard to its convertibility into molasses, I 

 have had, within a ihw days past, not only ocu- 

 lar, but paZaie demonstration, (if I may so express 

 myself",) for I have just tasted some of a bottle 

 f"ull — presented to me by a niece of mine, who is 

 quite as great an amateur of farming and garden- 

 ing as I am, with much more of the requisite zeal, 

 ardor, and energy, than old men can possibly pos- 

 sess. To my taste, this persimmon-molasses is as 

 good as any common cane-molasses, and so much 

 like it, in every respect, that no person, I think, 

 could distinguish the one from the other, unless 

 previously told which he was tasting. This sam- 



atter is a Baron Munchausen tale, while all that 

 I have stated of the persimmon, can be verified by 

 hundreds of perfectly credible witnesses. Per- 

 haps the whole may be already known to you, 

 who live in a persimmon country; and to many of 

 your subscribers similarly located. But should 

 you think that the facts will have any interest for 

 any of them, you are welcome to make the fore- 

 going statement in your next ' Register,' on the 

 authority of your old friend, 



James M. Garnett. 



LIMESTONE DISCOVERED NEAR CHARLESTON, 

 SOUTH CAROLINA. 



[The following account is interesting, and deservps. 

 notice, for more reasons than the value attached to the 

 discovery by the writers below. We infer, both from 

 the locality of the rock, and the description and state- 

 ment of its chemical analysis given, that it is not lime- 

 stone proper, but a better thing, if rightly used— that 

 is, a very rich concretion of fossil shells, or of their in- 

 durated remains, such as may be seen in the oldest 

 formation of what is called " marl," in many places on 

 the banks of James river. We attach but little value 

 to this stone, as a material for paving streets, in its di- 

 rect and designed object. It is obviously too soft to 

 form a durable pavement. But if so used in Charles- 

 ton, even its waste, as a pavement, will produce far 

 more valuable effects, in combining with and locking 



