INDIANA CANE GROWERS. 469 



EVENING SESSION. 



The convention met at 7 o'clock, with President Furnas in the chair. 

 E. W. Deming read the following address : 



PROMINENT FEATURES OF THE RECENT SUGAR- 

 GROWERS' MEETING AT ST. LOUIS, WITH 

 OBSERVATIONS ON GOV. WARMO.UTH'S 

 PLANTATIONS. 



BY E. W. DEMING. 



The attendance at the St. Louis Convention was not as large as the meeting 

 preceding, yet it was the most interesting meeting ever held by that society. The 

 meeting was opened by the President, N. J. Colman, in a very able and interest- 

 ing address, in which he urged members not to become discouraged ; that we were 

 not more oppressed than other branches of agriculture, and asked if we should 

 cease raising wheat and corn now that it had become unprofitable. A. S. Folger, 

 of Washington, Iowa, exhibited a model of a finishing pan, invented by John 

 Stuart, of Iowa. It is a low-sided, evenly-proportioned, open pan. A reel, similar 

 to that used by reapers, extends lengthwise and over the pan, with arms extending 

 to within one inch of the bottom of the pan. Secured at the ends of these arms, 

 parallel with its axis, is a piece of large tin guttei"-pipe, the bottom having many 

 perforations. This reel is turned by a belt — the tin gutter-pipe entering the liquid 

 upside down at one side of the pan, and leaving at the other right side up. This 

 carries cold air into the liquid, that expands, escaping with some of the moisture. 

 It disturbs the contents and gives a greater heating surface, and therefore, an easy 

 escape for the steam globules. Its main features are rapidity «nd the low temper- 

 ature at which the syrup is finished. From fort-nine tons of cane Mr. Stuai t pro- 

 duced 4,900 pounds of sugar with this pan. The past season has been the most 

 favorable ever known for cane in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Keports of tonnage 

 and yields of syrup per acre are really remarkable. The opinion of the meeting 

 was in favor of planting dry seed. In Minnesota extraordinary large yields of 

 wheat are reported from land on which cane was grown the previous season. 

 Wisconsin and Minnesota delegates favored planting cane in hills, while the mem- 

 bers to the South advocated planting in drills. It was the general opinion that 

 the past season has been a most disastrous one for large works, while small works 

 with an established local trade are generally but little affected by the depressed 

 condition of the syrup market. 



