478 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



E. W. Deming. Yes ; that is all you get out of them, whether you rot or burn. 

 As Mr. Anderson has a stiff, heavy soil, the bagasse acid remains there through the 

 winter, and, I presume, sours. You can hardly expect anything in it right from 

 the mill. After we burn those piles there is no acid left. Thepilep are sufBcicntly 

 dry tlie second day to burn without stirring. 



3fr. Anderson. I used to burn it right from the mill. 



Dr. Furnas. We haul the bagasse away from the mill with two ropes, forty feet 

 long, making a loop passing around the bagasse, and hitching two horses to it. A 

 little boy attends to this, dragging everything away smooth and nice, leaving the 

 bagasse in a pile. 



E. W. Deming. We shall all see the time when the bagasse will be valuable 

 paper stock. Farmers are not selling their straw as freely as they used, and bagasse 

 will come in on that line. Some are working sawdust into paper. The attempt to 

 make paper at our place proved to be a failure, as they undertook to make the 

 wrong kind of paper from it. 



W. L. Anderson. Mr. Chapman says the seed should be cooked, as it is hard, 

 and therefore has a binding influence on the animal. I always understood that 

 it was not due to the fact of its being hard, but on account of the great amount of 

 tanic acid, which caused it to have a binding influence. 



Mr. Chapman. The seeds are hard and indigestible ; it is better after boiling. 



W. L. Anderson. I have been sending boys to gather up the seed, but it did not 

 pay. This year I let the pigs take it ; they fattened nicely on it — leaving them in 

 the field until snow came. Hogs take it up much cleaner than boys will. 



Dr. Furnas. We fattened our hogs in the cane-field. It kept them in good 

 health, and they improved with much less corn than otherwise. I think it is good 

 economy to give the hogs the benefit of the field. 



W. L. Anderson read the following essay : 



MATTERS PERTAINING TO THE SORGHUM 

 INTEREST. 



BY W. L. ANDERSON. 



CHEMICALS. 



I think no one will call in question the statement that the wor^t enemy of the 

 syrup maker — the "sorghum taste" — is due to the free acid in the juice. The 

 " green taste " is the fly in the ointment. This must be neutralized to make a 

 eyrup that will compete with similar products. 



To the sugar-maker this acid is a worse enemy, since fully fifty per cent, of the 

 eugar will be lost if it is not neutralized. This must be done by the use of chemi- 

 cals. By what chemicals ? This has been variously answered. Many patent com- 

 pounds have been put on the market. The curse of every new industry — the 



