NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



April 



trading the sap in a small way were stated. The 

 cane may be cut in small pieces and boiled, and its 

 virtues thus extracted ; but that is not a desirable 

 method, because the sap thus obtained will be fla- 

 vored with other properties of the stalk, which will 

 necessarily be boiled out together with the sap. 

 The syriip has been made from cane raised in thir- 

 teen States and Territories, from Vermont and New 

 Hampshire on the east, to Minnesota on the west, 

 and Louisiana on the south. Col. Peters, of Ga., 

 obtained 468 gallons from an acre; his average 

 product was 407 gallons per acre. With proper 

 machinery for expressing the juice, the product 

 may be at least TiTO gallons per acre. Col. Peters 

 will plant this year from 150 to 200 acres. There 

 is little hope that the cultivation of the plant for 

 sugar can be as profitable at the North, as at the 

 South. There, one thousand pounds per acre may 

 be produced, and it will ripen two or three months 

 earlier than the common sugar cane. At the North 

 we should confine ourselves to raising it for fodder 

 principally, and for the seed as a source of food to 

 animals, or for the production of alcohol. 



The processes for the manufactui-e of the syrup 

 and the sugar, as giveu by Prof. Mapes, were read ; 

 but they were too lengthy and too minute to be 

 given here. In closing, Mr. Olcutt said he had not 

 designed to raise too high expectations in the minds 

 of farmers with regard to this plant. He merely 

 wished them to take to their homes the fact that a 

 really important economic and industrial plant has 

 been brought within the reach of the American ag- 

 riculturist, and that judging from the past, we may 

 be satisfied of the certainty that it will be in vari- 

 ous ways a profitable acquisition. 



The satisfaction of the audience was expressed 

 by applause at the close of the lecture. 



Simon Browtv, of Concord, remarked that the 

 interest felt in the subject of the lecture was indi- 

 cated by the unusual number of persons present this 

 evening ; the hall was quite well filled. He had 

 been instructed and interested by the lecture, and 

 he moved that the thanks of the meeting be ten- 

 dered to the lecturer for his minute, highly inter- 

 esting and instructive lecture ; and it was unani- 

 mously carried. 



J. F. C. Hyde, of Newton, was called upon by 

 the Chairman to speak upon the subject. He said 

 he had given his views to the public in the form of 

 a little book. He believed two things in regard 

 to the Chinese sugar cane to be definitely settled. 

 As a forage crop we have nothing to compare with 

 it ; two crops may be obtained in the same season 

 in Massachusetts, when sown for fodder. He had 

 never been able to obtain two crops of sown corn. 

 Drought does not affect it in the least ; when corn 

 droops and rolls up its leaves, this plant grows 

 with more than usual vigor ; if sown the first of 

 May, the cutting may commence early in June, when 



it will be two or three feet high ; and when the 

 field has been (^ut over once, the cutting may com- 

 mence again where it was first cut. Another 

 thing fully established is its value for syrup ; the 

 syrup is as easily made as toast or porridge. That 

 which the lecturer had exhibited this evening as 

 made by Col. Peters, of Georgia, was the poorest 

 he had seen. Mr. Hyde fully agreed that the seed 

 was valuable for fodder — quite as good as oats ; he 

 wished, however, to use a word of caution ; there 

 might be danger of too extravagant ideas of the 

 value of the plant. One gentleman in Peimsylva- 

 nia had written to him that he should plant eighty 

 acres this year. He has no machinerj' and no fa- 

 cilities for making the syrup, and I begged him not 

 to do it, said Mr. H., because I felt that he would 

 fail to realize his expectations, and would then de- 

 nounce the plant. Mr. H. said he should plant an 

 acre, and should procure some of the best machin- 

 ery for making the syrup, and so far as he could, 

 should make thorough experiments of the value of 

 the plant for syrup and other uses, not with the 

 idea of making it profitable to himself, but that 

 the public may have the benefit of the experiments. 

 He did not believe sugar could profitably be made 

 at the North from this plant, but he hoped the 

 matter might be thoroughly tested. Some had 

 said tl.at cows would not eat the stalks ; but he 

 had seen a cow take a cane stalk nine or ten feet 

 long, and commence chewing at one end, and chew 

 it to the other without dropping it ; she evident- 

 ly liked it. His cows would pick out all the cane 

 stalks from a pile of corn and cane before they 

 would eat the corn stalks. If cut fine, horses will 

 eat the stalks as greedily as they will eat shelled 

 corn. 



Mr. Wilder, the Chairman, expressed his grat- 

 ification at the very full attendance at the meeting, 

 and his satisfaction with the lecture, taking occasion 

 also to offer a word of caution against too sanguine 

 hopes, and at the same time giving ground of en- 

 couragement from the fact that the plant has been 

 cultivated so extensively within a year or two, and 

 that there has not been a failure in any case. The 

 meeting was adjourned to next Tuesday evening, 

 when the subject of discussion will be "J^lanures." 



SALT FOR SHEEP. 



The first thing the shepherd in Spain does when 

 his flocks return from the south, the summer downs, 

 or pastures, is to give them as much salt as they 

 will eat. Every owner allows to each thousand 

 sheep, 2,500 pounds of salt, which they consume 

 in about five months. They eat none in their jour- 

 neys, nor are they allowed any in winter, as it is 

 thought to produce abortion when given to ewes 

 forward with young. This has been the custom, 

 and it is thought to be the true reason why the 

 Kings of Spain could never raise the price of salt to 

 the height it has maintained in France ; for it 



