504 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Nov. 



PEESEEVATIOIT AND USE OF AGEI- 



CULTUEAL JOUENALS. 



As the volume of njost periodicals closes with 

 their year, it is an appropriate time to make some 

 suggestions upon their use. To begin with — Care-; 

 fully preserve your agricultural papers. Afler^ 

 reading the papers as they come out, have a place ■ 

 for them where you can lay your hand on them at 

 any moment, when waiting for meals or for any- 

 thing else. A distinguished scholar is said to have 

 acquired a language in odd moments, when wailing 

 for breakfast. Every farmer has at times leisure 

 in his family, which may be well occupied in refer- 

 ring to facts which have excited his interest in the 

 first reading of the papers. Have a place, then, 

 for them ; and be very careful how you lend them. 

 If your experience is anything like the writer's, it 

 will be a losing business, both to yourself and to 

 the borrower. Ten chances to one, the paper will 

 not come home at all, or if it come, it vill be minus 

 one or more leaves, or plus a little soil which has 

 ceased to be free. In that case, your volume is 

 broken or injured for binding, and you are the 

 loser. It is equally a bad operation for the bor- 

 rower ; for so long as he lives by borrowing he will 

 not take and pay for an agricultural paper for him- 

 self, and what he reads or learns of his business will 

 be superficial. " A little learning is a dangerous 

 thing" in farming. Better pay for a second paper 

 for your neighbor than to be without your own. 

 The merchant might as well lend his ledger, the 

 scholar his text-books, or the Christian his Bible. 



At the close of the volume bind up the numbers, 

 and put them on the shelf among the books. If 

 you are flush, and live near a book-bindery, get 

 the man of sheep skin and muslin to give your vol- 

 ume a handsome dress ; but if mother wit is more 

 plenty with you than the coin, and you have a 

 Yankee's skill in the use of tools, do the binding 

 yourself. A table, a bradawl, a darning needle, 

 and a stout piece of twine, will furnish you for the 

 work. Put your numbers in regular order upon 

 the table or board, then, with your awl, make 

 three holes, at suitable distances apart, and with 

 the twine and needles make the numbers fast. If 

 you wish a cover to the volume, put a coating of 

 glue upon the back, and put over a stiff sheet of 

 wrapping paper, and trim it off to the size of the 

 book. Put the name of the work upon the back, 

 and the No. of the volume, and your binding is 

 finished. 



You have now preserved jour volume. No 

 number, containing just the information or experi- 

 ment you want, will be lent to your neighbor, or 

 stray away into the miscellaneous pile of newspa- 

 pers, and be hustled off into the garret by the good 

 housewife, who loves so dearly to have everything 

 packed away in its place. The next thing, after 

 preserving the papers, is to use them. If an ag- 

 ricultural journal is v/orth reading at all, it is worth 

 studying, until you thoroughly comjirehend its 

 teachings. If your paper is merely an appendage 

 to an agricultural seed or tool store — a vehicle of 

 puffing this man's potatoes or that man's plow — it 

 would be better to change it for one that has no 

 axe of its own to grind, but stands ready to do the 

 needful by yours. There are practical scientific 

 farmers, as well as seedsmen, in the editorial field, 

 and there is a choice in papers, as well worthy of 

 your attention as a choice of seeds or a choice of 



stock. If the editor of your paper is accomplished 

 in his profession, take him as a standard, and his 

 teachings for your text-book, until you can find a 

 better. Study your text-book, for it contains not 

 only the news of your business, but its fundamental 

 principles. There is a grammar of agriculture, 

 which needs to be fastened in the memory, and in- 

 wardly digested. These principles are as essential 

 to your success, as the principles of Blackstone and 

 kindred text books are to the lawyer. The law- 

 yer has also his reports and book of cases, with 

 which it becomes him to be familiar. Your bound 

 volumes contain your reports and record of cases. 

 Many of the experiments therein recorded would 

 be an improvement upon your present style of 

 farming, if you would adopt them. They would 

 give you larger crops with less expense, and show 

 a great difference in the annual income of the farm. 

 If the writer has derived any benefit from agricul- 

 tural papers, it has been gained by studying their 

 principles and following their teachings. If any 

 one can grow corn, or any other farm croj), more 

 economically than yourself, it is for your interest to 

 learn the method and put it in practice. We say, 

 then, preserve your papers and use them. They 

 will beguile you of many a weary hour in stormy 

 weather or in winter, and furnish you with material 

 for reflection when your hands are busy. — The 

 HoTnestead. 



For the New England Fanner. 



CHINESE SUGAR CANE. 



SORGHUM SACCIIARATUM. 



Mr. Editor : — Last spring I received from the 

 Patent Office, through your hands, a paper of seed 

 of the Chinese Sugar Cane, which I planted about 

 the 20th of May, not believing it would amount to 

 much. It came up well, and has grown well, hav- 

 ing attained to the height of ten feet. Last week — 

 the corn being just in bloom — I cut several stalks 

 and crushed them and pressed out the juice, which 

 I boiled down to molasses, a sample of which I send 

 you, that you may both see and taste for yourself. 

 The juice is very rich in saccharine matter, the quart 

 of juice which I boiled making about half a pint 

 of thick molasses. I did not know how to make 

 sugar, and so did not see what it would do ; nor 

 have I made any champagne of it, though it is 

 said to make a fine article. The great difiiculty is 

 to express the juice from the stalk, and nothing 

 that I know of will do it effectually but a sugar 

 mill, and those we do not have in these parts. I3ut 

 if this article proves, on a further trial, to be what 

 I think it is, sugar mills may be erected even in the 

 good old Bay State, and we be no longer depen- 

 dent on slave labor for our supply of sugar and 

 molasses. I hope it may be so, for then we shall 

 give slavery a check, and perhaps Virginia will find 

 the demand for slaves to go South on the sugar 

 plantations considerably diminished, so as to render 

 the breeding of slaves unprofitable for that State. 

 Then again there will be some satisfaction in know- 

 ing that you are using sugar and molasses from 

 cane grown on free soil by free labor. If this article 

 should succeed perfectly we cannot sufficiently^ es- 

 timate the glorious results of its successful cultiva- 

 tion. It is a fine article for stover, it is so rich in 

 saccharine matter ; cows, pigs and even horses w-ill 

 eat the stalks as well as the leaves with the greatest 

 avidity. The tops may be used for brooms, just 



