0. 



Corn-stalk Sugar. 



197 



^en or eleven years for this communica- 

 n, I think I will give my name in full for 

 r of mistake. 



Isaac Wayne Van Leer. 



West Nantmeal, Dec. 27th, 1842. 



For the Farmer's Cabinet. 

 Corn-stalk Sugar. 



Messrs. Editors, — I am mortified to find 

 Mr. Garnett's Address to the Agricultu- 

 [ Society of Fredericksburg, that our in- 

 digent and interesting young friend, Mr. 

 '. Webb, of Wilmington, Delaware, has 

 led in his arduous endeavours, to ascertain 

 >m an acre of well cultivated land, what 

 juld be the actual result, in a pecuniary 

 ly, of the manufacture of sugar from the 

 rn-stalk; and particularly, that this disap 

 intment had arisen, not from any fault of 

 s own, but from a failure of the machinery 

 :d apparatus, which had been prepared on 

 ■5 slight and cheap a scale: but were it not 

 r the fear that I shall be accounted " a 

 ophet of the past," I would say, I always 

 ispected that this would be the result, 

 ew persons would be apt to calculate the 

 cpense attendant on even a small experi- 

 ent in the making of sugar, whether from 

 e cane, the beet, or the corn-stalk; all 

 ho know anything about it, however, are 

 vare of the fact, that the process, even 

 om the first, is proverbially laborious, care- 

 1 and expensive. Mr. Webb's apparatus 

 st him about $300: I should rather add 

 1,000 to that sum ; in my opinion, the cause 

 ' the failure in the attempts to make sugar 

 om the beet, has arisen from the single 

 rcumstance of its never having been taken 

 > on a sufficiently expensive scale ; in 

 ranee, there is no difficulty or delay expe- 

 3nced ; but there, the machinery is equal 

 the labour required. Mr. Garnett informs 

 1, that the mill for grinding the stalks, failed 

 i the second day, marring the whole busi- 

 es; but fortunately, not until it had been 

 ;ain shown, that the thing is perfectly prac- 

 :able, and the results such as to verify the 

 ost sanguine calculations, as to the quantity 

 id quality of the sugar to be obtained. It 

 auld appear that Mr. Garnett was so fortu 

 te as to meet Mr. T. Morgan, of Louisiana, 

 Mr. Webb's ; with that gentleman I have 

 e honour of a personal acquaintance, and 

 n bear testimony to the fact, that accord 

 g to his experience, the juice of the corn- 

 ilk, as tested by the saccharometer, is 

 'o-tenths stronger than the juice of the 

 Miisiana sugar-cane — a circumstance to be 

 counted for, only by the fact, that the cane 

 es not fully ripen in Louisiana, so that the 

 ,ice is incipient; and to this cause is, no 



doubt, to be attributed the difficulty which 

 is experienced in the after-process, in manu- 

 facturing sugar from the cane in that lati- 

 tude ; where, also, the effects, either of an 

 early or late frost, are so often felt and de- 

 plored, and by which their crushing season 

 is materially shortened, and the direful re- 

 sults rendered irremediable. It has been 

 seen, that the juice of the corn-stalk defe- 

 cates remarkably easy, and goes on to the 

 granulating point without difficulty and with 

 perfect certainty — all which is to be ac- 

 counted for, from the circumstance, that the 

 corn has been perfectly ripened, and affords 

 a juice properly concocted and matured ; 

 which is therefore shown, first by the sac- 

 charometer, and again, in the ease with 

 which the granulating process is conducted 

 to perfection. 



I have been informed, that Mr. Morgan 

 was so well satisfied of the probable results 

 of the cultivation of the corn-stalk for the 

 purpose of making sugar, that he, the last 

 year, gave orders for the growth of a certain 

 breadth, on his sugar plantation in Louisi- 

 ana, the past summer, so as to give him a 

 full boiling of juice for his vacuum pan, that 

 the trial might be made on a scale sufficient 

 to produce actual results, by which to calcu- 

 late, in a pecuniary point of view, the real 

 value of the corn-stalk in the manufacture 

 of sugar, but that his intentions were frus- 

 trated — levelled to the dust — by a storm, 

 which prostrated the corn, and entirely 

 ruined his prospects. Now, I should be 

 glad to learn, how his plantations of canes 

 were affected by this storm, and whether 

 they too were prostrated by it 7 because, if 

 corn is less able to bear the effects of storms 

 than the cane, and is more injured by being 

 blown down, here is a serious difficulty at 

 the outset. 



It was reported that Mr. Webb had planted 

 his corn very thick, with the view of render- 

 ing the labour of removing the ears unne- 

 cessary ; would that gentleman inform us if 

 he found any difference in the yield of sac- 

 charine, either in quantity or quality of juice, 

 in those stalks from which the ears had been 

 extracted, on comparison with those that had 

 never shown a tendency to produce ears at 

 all? and would he still recommend close 

 planting in the rows; say an inch or two 

 between the stalks 1 These are interesting 

 questions ; for, although I am not so sanguine 

 as to believe with Mr. Garnett, that " sugar 

 from the corn-stalk will, in a few years, be 

 made in every State in the Union," yet that 

 it will become a staple manufacture in the 

 Western States, where the price of corn 

 is from 12| to 25 cents per bushel, I have 

 no doubt; the result, however, being equally 



