THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



i06 



lizing 2,00 pounds or a ton of sugar per acre, 

 is an easily attainable yield on good soil with 

 good cultivation and proper crushing mills for 

 expressing the juiue. Of course, wlvere a crop 

 of corn is planted for the sugar alone it must 

 be grown much more densely on the ground 

 than when the ripened grain is the object. 

 For example, common field corn sown in 

 drills, so that the corn stems will stand four 

 to six inches apart— the rows 3i feet apart— 

 yields on soil of medium quality an average 

 of 250 pounds of trimmed stems to each 100 

 feet in length of the rows, yielding to a 

 properly-constructed mill at least 00 percent. 

 {165 pounds) of juiceof specilic gravity, 1.057, 

 of which ten per cent, (or 10^ pounds) of 

 sugar is by this process easily extracted, or at 

 the rate of over a ton of sugar lo the acre of 

 ground. In compari.son with this, the same 

 kind of corn, planted in rows the same dis- 

 tance apart, but in hills averaging three feet 

 apart and three stems to the hill, so that the 

 grain may be fully developed in the "roasting- 

 ear" state, the yield of sugar will be only 

 about oue-half of that in the former case or 

 about 1,000 pounds per acre. 



Seventh. The hot summer climate of this 

 portion of North America is unequaled for 

 the growth of these plants, as the exhibits at 

 the late luternalional Exhibition at Philadel- 

 phia fully manifested, and the improved agri- 

 cultural implements and methods now in use 

 in maize culture will simplify and cheapen 

 immeasurable its production. 



Eighth. If a combined sugar and grain crop 

 is desired the largest-stemmed varieties of 

 sweet corn should be grown. The grain may 

 be cured by drying when it is in the proper 

 condition ; but the ears of field corn may be 

 removed before they harden and fed to stock, 

 either fresh or dried. There is scarcely any dif- 

 ference in the saccharine strength of the juice 

 of "sweet" and field corn. Sorghum, however, 

 yields more sugar than most varieties of sweet 

 corn on account of its much larger stems. 



Ninth. Great advantage is afforded in the 

 manufacture of the new sugars, from the cir- 

 cumstance that the period of cutting and 

 working the crop into dense syrup occurs at a 

 time when the season for out-door work is the 

 most favorable and when the days are long. 

 No loss is likely to result from inclemency of the 

 weather. Futhermore, the process of manufac- 

 ture, when carried on by thissystem, may safely 

 be arrested at a point where it may be comple- 

 ted during the winter, when labor is cheap. 



Tenth. A large crop of blades and tops for fod- 

 der, equal to hay — the ripened seed of the cane 

 — which, when crushed, is equal to oats, and the 

 oflfal of the sugar factory for manure, are supple- 

 mentary to the sugar crop and very valuable. 



Eleventh. By judicious treatment of the 

 soil, returning to ij; regularly all that has been 

 removed from it except the saccharine pro- 

 duct, a sugar crop is the least exhaustive of 

 all crops that can be grown, and improvement 

 of the land is easy and certain. New lands 

 are equally adapted to it. 



Twelfth. The force of the various natural 

 advantages possessed by these plants in the 

 United States will be found to be greatly 

 augmented by the circumstance that the de- 

 partures from the old processes of manufac- 

 ture now necessary to be adopted are all in 

 the direction of greater simplicity, cheapness, 

 and ease of management in accomplishing the 

 result — the reverse of what the more complex 

 nature of these juices would seem to indicate. 

 It will be found, for example, that the cost of 

 the manufacture of corn or sorghum sugar in 

 this country can easily be reduced to less than 

 one-half the cost of the best sugar manufactured 

 in Hurope, the aarbonaceous process and the me 

 of animal charcoal being entirely dispensed with 

 and the use of the vacuum pan being made un- 

 necessary, and not even desirable, "except in 

 the case of the largest central factories. 



In concluding this brief summary of the 

 main facts of this subject, I cannot but ex- 

 press the surprise which I have felt during the 

 whole course of these researches that d uring the 

 century which has elapsed since our birth as a 

 nation no adequate conception has been reached 



of the true value of one of the commonest 

 products of our soil — our native Indian corn. 



The value of the process itself for the prac- 

 tical manufacture of sugar, independent of 

 my own work, has been fully determined by 

 the series of test experiments made with it at 

 the Department of Agriculture last summer, 

 under the direction of the Commissioner, by 

 Professor Collins and by intelligent farmers 

 in the western country, who were furnished 

 by me with the chumicals and necessary in- 

 formation. In no case has there been a single 

 failure. The experiments already made with 

 the process at Washington can fully demon- 

 strate, in the language of the Commissioner, 

 "that there exists in these two plants a large 

 amount of sugar, which may be readily ob- 

 tained, and that the aggregate amount possi- 

 ble from tills source would be practically un- 

 limited ;" and in the emphatic statement 

 with which Professor Collins completes his 

 special report, "that the experiments have at 

 least established the fact that there is no 

 trouble in making sugar from corn and sorg- 

 hum, and that the sugars obtained were in a 

 most satisfactory condition, in every respect 

 comparing most favorably with the best raw 

 sugar of the market." 



If the results already reached are accepted 

 in their full significance, there can be no 

 question that we are on the eve of a revolu- 

 tion in sugar manufacture, and of the rise of 

 a new and permanent industry in this country. 



A DUTCH DAIRY FARM. 



Mr. J. Howlett, of Syracuse, N. Y., says 

 the Ilassachusetls Ploughman, writes from 

 Europe: "After feeding the horses and rest- 

 ing a little while, we drove about eight miles 

 farther on to one of the best stock and dairy 

 farms in Holland. They used the very same 

 stable at the farm that they did in the four- 

 teenth century. They have little rings in the 

 ceiling with cords passing through tiiem, by 

 which the cows' tails are held up to keep them 

 from getting dirty. The stable was carpeted 

 and had plants and flowers in it. The floor of 

 the stables was of small bricks. At the back 

 of the stalls was a trough of masonry about 

 eight inches wide and nine inches deep, with 

 a ditch or reservoir of water at one end. As 

 soon as the trench was dirtied they turned on 

 the water and all the manure, etc., was car- 

 ried out to a covered vat, whence it could be 

 removed to the fields or wherever they want- 

 ed it moved to. The cows were as clean, if 

 not cleaner, than your horses. All the fast- 

 ening they have is a little cord around their 

 necks, and they are so gentle and quiet that 

 they do not require anything stronger. 



They use brass milk pails instead of wood 

 or tin ones. We saw the way they make the 

 round cheeses that are sent to America. They 

 have wooden molds in the shape of two hem- 

 ispheres or half balls. These are hollow and 

 fit together. The cheese curd is roughly 

 pressed into shape and then placed in the 

 molds. The lower half of the mold is station- 

 ary, while the upper part is fastened to a kind 

 of screw working in a beam overhead. The 

 upper half is screwed down tight, and the 

 cheese is left for a week. At the end of a 

 week it ia screwed down tigliter and left an- 

 other week. At the end of a third week the 

 cheese is exposed to the air and the curing 

 begins. It takes three months for a cheese to 

 be cured, and a year before it is fit for the 

 market. Everything was as sweet and neat 

 as P.ny parlor I ever saw. 



The stables and stall for the horses were cov- 

 ered with matting. You have no idea how clean 

 everything was, without seeing how it is done. 



They use the same kind of churns, the same 

 kind of cheese presses, and the same kind of 

 pails, etc., that they did five hundred years 

 ago. They think it is showing disrespect to 

 their ancestors to make any improvements in 

 the implements that their forefathers used. 



I inquired the price of the cattle, and found 

 that the cows cost from 200 to 350 guilders, 

 and the bulls from 300 to 450 guilders, or in 

 our money cows from 880 to $140, and bulls 

 from $120 to $180 or $200 each. 



FIGHTING AGAINST TRESPASSING. 

 We are told that it is a very common im- 

 pression with people that " by law " they can 

 shoot trespassing dogs, chickens, pigeons, etc., 

 if they only leave them on the ground where 

 they fall, and do not take them away. And 

 farther, that some justices of the peace have 

 the same views, anil freely give this advice to 

 people who complain of this trespassing nui- 

 sance. Even were this the law, it is never 

 wise policy to take this means of destroying 

 the troublesome property of a neighbor. It 

 always breeds animosity and hard feelings, 

 which generally result in greater losses than 

 the damage done. The friendly remonstrance 

 will generally prevail, but where this is un- 

 heeded, a dignified and firm resort to the nui- 

 sance-law, by which one is compelled to obey 

 the law, he can fall back on as a last resort. 

 The quarrel is then between the law and its 

 violator, and is not likely to take so pfrsonal 

 a turn as when one is suspected of "poisoning 

 my chickens," or " shooting my dog." 



We very much doubt, however, whether 

 J,herc be any such law as that tradition reports 

 there is. If so, many judges and juries do 

 not seem to know of it, and some destroyers 

 of trespassing animals do not always get any 

 benefit from it. We noticed lately a trial in a 

 neighboring county, of a man for poisoning a 

 trespassing dog which annoyed him. He con- 

 fessed that he did, and thought he was justi- 

 ffed; but judge and jury thought otherwise, 

 and he was .sentenced to three months' im- 

 prisonment. Peaceable resorts in all such 

 cases are the best. It must be a very obsti- 

 nate and unneighborly man who will not abate 

 any nuisance of the kind comi)lained of, if 

 requested in the proper spirit. There is noth- 

 ing that makes a proper person feel so uncom- 

 fortable, especially in the country, as having 

 a bad and unfriendly resident close by him ; 

 hence trouble should always be avoided if 

 possible. 



HOW CIVILIZATION BENEFITS OUR 

 BIRDS. 



The result of all this is that the aggregate 

 army of singing birds east of the Mississippi 

 has "been very considerably enlarged during 

 the last two centuries, and is still on the in- 

 crease. This can only be owing to the fact 

 that by cutting down the forests, etc., man 

 has tempered the rigor of the winter, has 

 multiplied the sources of their food, has ap- 

 pended many additional places suitable for 

 rearing their young, and has eniibled them to 

 bring more fledglings to maturity by reducing 

 the ranks of their enemies. This has not only 

 augmented their numbers and modified very 

 appreciably their habits of nesting and migra- 

 tion, their physical natures and mental char- 

 acteristics, but probably has even changed their 

 voices. There is little doubt in my mind that 

 in making their lives less laborious, apprehen- 

 sive and solitary, man has left the birds time 

 and opportunity for far more .singing than their 

 hard worked, scantily-fed and timorous an- 

 cestors ever enjoyed ; a privilege a bird is not 

 slow to make use of. 



But on the other hand it seems equally 

 certain that the music of our more domestic 

 birds, though greater in volume, is not so 

 sweet in tone as that of their wilder brethren. 

 Our street sparrows are naturally, I suppose, 

 rather harsh voiced; but whatever they might 

 have been a thousand years ago. they could 

 hardly be otherwise now, when the rattle-te- 

 bang of the city pavements has been their 

 only teacher for many centuries. The mock- 

 ing bird has learned' lo imitate the creak of 

 the farmer's wheelbarrow— no dulcet sound — 

 and the scream of the farmer's boy. Many 

 of the sounds constantly uttered by men and 

 evoked by their work are anything but melo- 

 dious, and young birds born and bred in their 

 midst must surely turn out less sweet and 

 accomplished singers than if reared among 

 the gentle whisperings of leafy woods, and 

 learning music only from the golden -mouthed 

 minstrels of the sylvan choii.— Sunday After- 

 noon for June. 



