228 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



of cane lias 255 stalks. Every five stalks will make a pint of 

 juice without pressing, equal to 51 pints of juice per rod. This, 

 after boiling seven gallons into one, makes 142 gallons and a 

 fraction of sirup, per acre. Let the price of the sirup be the 

 same as was offered me by the grocer in Boston, referred to 

 above, namely, seventy-five cents per gallon, and the result is 

 $106.50. I consider one shilling a gallon of the sirup, as the 

 expense of boiling ; this amounts to $23.67, and reduces the 

 value of the sirup crop to $82.83. 



The corn crop has been light this year. One square rod 

 taken as an average one, produced ten and one-half pints of 

 shelled corn, measured the last week in October. Allowing the 

 half pint for shrinkage, which is probably too little, the crop 

 would be 50 bushels to the acre. But the corn was planted 

 without guano, and it may be said that would account for the 

 smallness of the crop. My own belief is, that when land is 

 manured from the stable and barn cellar, as mine was, the guano 

 would make but little difference in the crop. This is proved by 

 the fact that the hills of cane, where guano was not applied, did 

 not differ in appearance from the hills where it was applied. So 

 far as the stalk itself is concerned, the advantage would be on 

 the side of the Indian corn, probably, though of this there may 

 be some doubt. Suppose, however, an allowance of ten dollars 

 per acre be made in favor of the corn fodder, the cane crop 

 will not compare badly, as the two crops would then foot up as 

 follows, viz. : Cane, $82.83 ; corn, $60, if reckoned at one dol- 

 lar per bushel. The comparison between the cane crop and 

 corn crop is not quite perfect, I admit, for the reason that guano 

 was omitted in the latter and applied in the former. 



It may be best to boil the juice immediately after grinding, 

 such being the directions given by some writers. But this is 

 not indispensable. Of the juice ground on the 9th of October, 

 I kept a part, say two pailfuls, over two nights and one and a 

 half days. The mercury in the mornings of those days, stood 

 at 50° ; but the sirup was as perfect as any which I have made. 



One other fact in favor of the cane crop is to be mentioned. 

 I refer to the quantity of sirup. It is to be recollected that I 

 did not press the cane after grinding, at all, after the first time, 

 September 8th. At that grinding of 300 canes, the amount 

 pressed in a common cider press was about four pailfuls. The 



