AND 



AMERICAN HERD-BOOK, 



DEVOTED TO 



AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE, AND RURAL AND DOMESTIC AFFAIRS. 



" The Productions or tho Earth will always be in proportion to lite culture bestowed upon it." 



Vol. VI — No. 11.] 



6th mo. (June,) 15th, 1842. 



[Whole No. 89. 



JOSIAH TATUM, 



PROPRIETOR AND PUBLISHER, 



No. 50 North Fourth Street, 



PHILADELPHIA. 

 Price one dollar per year. — For conditions see last page. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Corn-Stalk Sugar. 



Mr. Editor, — I perceive by your last pa- 

 per that J. M. C. has acrain called attention 

 to the question of originality, which he raised 

 in a former number respecting the plan I 

 have proposed for making sugar from corn. 



"Justice to himself," as he says, "requires 

 such a course :" but this pursuit of an ignis- 

 fatuus which he fancies to be justice, has led 

 him a very unprofitable and troublesome race 

 from one quagmire of mistake and misunder- 

 standing, into another. Every succeeding 

 step has only served to make " confusion 

 worse confounded." After all his labour to 

 prove that there is "nothing new in the pro- 

 posed plan," he suddenly finds out that " Mr. 

 Webb himself makes not the least pretension 

 to discovery of any sort, or even of improve- 

 ment in any of the processe.s, whether of 

 growing the corn or extracting and concen- 

 trating its juices." 



This curious inference offers another illus- 

 tration of the wonderful power of mental 

 vision possessed by J. M. C., which I have 

 had occasion before to notice. He sees things 

 entirely invisible to everybody else. 



" Optics sharp it takes, I ween, 

 To Bee what is not to be seen." 



People of ordinary penetration do not con- 

 eider it necessary to argue against a claim 

 until some pretension is made to it; but Mr. 

 C. not only demolishes the claim (in his own 

 estimation) but proves at the same time that 

 no claim is made ! 



He next asserts that the processes detailed 

 in the essay are extremely "defective when 

 compared with late improvements which 

 might well be termed discoveri-es in the art 

 of sugar-making; coming properly under the 

 head of refining." This is very true, they 

 do come properly under the head of refining, 

 and for that reason could not properly be in- 

 troduced into the essay. Those who manu- 



Cab.— Vol. VI.— No. 11. 



facture sugar on a large scale should doubt- 

 less use vacuum pans and evaporate by steam, 

 but as I have done nothing in this way, no- 

 thing was said about it; preferring rather to 

 write on matters upon which I had some 

 practical acquaintance ; — The display of mere 

 theoretical knowledge being apt to lead into 

 difficulty, a fact which it appears that Mr. C. 

 is not aware of. 



In the course of the investijration some ex- 

 periments were made with different quanti- 

 ties of lime, in order to ascertain as nearly 

 as possible what proportion of this substance 

 would best answer the purpose. The result 

 was that no certain rule could be given about 

 it; the experience of the manufactnier is the 

 only thing to be depended upon — the varying 

 strength of the lime, and the uncertain quali- 

 ties of the juice will make a difference of 

 more than a hundred per cent, in the quan- 

 tity required. Accordingly it was stated in 

 the essay that one and sometimes two table- 

 spoonsful of milk of lime were added to a 

 gallon of corn juice, and that both quantities 

 were successfully used. This was given as 

 a simple matter of fact, yet it is considered 

 by Mr. C. as showing a "want of all judg- 

 ment," and as proof positive that the " prin- 

 ciple of defecation was neither understood 

 nor practised." 



Mr. D. L. Child, who lately visited the beet- 

 sugar establishments of Europe, states that 

 of "forty-three manufacturers whose methods 

 he had an opportunity of observing, no two 

 ever used the same quantity of lime;" the 

 smallest quantity was 150 grains, and the 

 largest 300 grains to the gallon of juice. He 

 also states that experienced nianufactnrer.s 

 never weigh it, but judge by the eye. This 

 is all " antiquated" information to those who 

 know any thing about the manufacture of 

 susrar, but it is given for Mr. C.'s especial be- 

 nefit. This " loose" mode of doing business 

 proves, according to his notion, their " want 

 of all judgment," and that they neither " un- 

 derstand nor practise the true principle of 

 defecation." Under such circumstances the 

 success of these French manufacturers in 

 making sugar must be, to hi7n, a matter " not 

 easily to be accounted for." 



As to the " precise point of concentration," 

 of which he talks so much, I can only say 

 that the point recommended was the one 



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