56 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[April, 



as an experiment, and next, on a larger scale, 

 as a regular crop from year to year. 



But the most remarkable results from these 

 experiments in sugar making obtained by 

 Professor Collyer were from Indian corn. 

 From an acre of land planted last year with a 

 common white field corn, known as the horse 

 tooth, from tlic shape of its kernel, he gath- 

 ered the ears when fully ripe, and their yield 

 of shelled corn was sixty-nine and one-tenth 

 bushels— more than double the average crop 

 per acre of the country at large. Next, 

 stripping and grinding the stalks and work- 

 ing up their juice by the new processes, he 

 extracted from it 960 pounds, or nearly half a 

 ton of sugar of a good quality. Here, then, 

 from the stalks — thrown out by our farmers 

 into the refuse of the barn yard as fit only to 

 be reduced to manure — a more profitable 

 crop has been obtained than the corn. Nor 

 is this all. The pulverized stalks, after the 

 extraction of the saccharine juice (to the 

 extent now practicable, sixty per cent,) have 

 proved nutritious food for cattle, from their 

 elements of starch and nitrogen retained. 

 Applying this extract of sugar to the Indian 

 corn crop of the United States — that is, to 

 the rejected cornstalks — they would give us an 

 income whicli, within the brief period of ten 

 years, would extinguish our national debt. 



Incredible as this fixct may appear it is de- 

 ducible from the product of 960 pounds of 

 sugar obtained from the stalks of an acre of 

 Indian corn, in addition to their yield of 

 sixty-nine bushels of good shelled corn. Or 

 take it in another form. Putting our Indian 

 corn crop at the average of $400,000,000 in 

 value, and estimating the sugar in the stalks 

 at only half the value of the corn, with the 

 production of so vast an amount of sugar we 

 have still in these cornstalks gold and silver 

 to the amount of $200,000,000— more than 

 double the sum of gold and silver extracted 

 from all our mines between the British Do- 

 minions and Mexico, and equal in value to 

 the cotton crop of all our Southern states. 



When the first Napoleon, when France, 

 under the blockade of the English navy, was 

 cut off from her foreign supplies, offered a 

 reward of 10,000f. for a home produced sub- 

 stitute for the sugar of the West Indies which 

 could be produced equal to the wants of the 

 French people, he secured a reward worth in- 

 calculably more to France than all her vic- 

 tories in the battle field — a reward the value 

 of which cannot be reached in the millions of 

 money saved to France in her beet root sugar. 

 How, then, can we estimate the value of these 

 new appliances which render the production 

 of sugar from sorghum and cornstalks a more 

 profitable industry oil our large Southern 

 plantations than cotton, and on our small 

 Northern farms yielding a richer return than 

 corn, wheat, grass or potatoes ? 



The old Mexican inhabitants of Santa Fe, 

 New Mexico, will tell you that from their 

 grandfathers they inherited the secret of ex- 

 tracting sugar from cornstalks, and that the 

 corn fields of their valley for generations gone 

 by have supplied tho.se people their bread, 

 meat and sugar, to say nothing of the whisky 

 — a "Yankee notion." We find, too, that 

 our forefathers of the war of independence 

 knew something of the saccharine value of 

 cornstalks, from the extract of a letter written 

 by Abigail Adams to her husband. John 

 Adams, dated September 24, 1787, which is 

 as follows : 



"An instance may be seen in the progress 

 which is made in grinding cornstalks and 

 boiling the liquor into molasses. Scarcely a 

 town or parish within forty miles of us Ijut 

 what has several mills at work; and had the 

 experiment been made a month sooner, many 

 thousand barrels woidd have been made. No 

 less than eighty have been made in the small 

 town of Manchester. It answers very well to 

 distill, and may be boiled down to sugar. 

 There are two mills fitting up in this parish. 

 They have three rollers — one with cogs and 

 two smooth. The stalks are stripped of the 

 leaves and tops, so that it is no robbery upon 

 the cattle, and the juice ground out, 'Tis 



said four barrels of juice will make one of 

 molasses, but in this people differ widely. 

 They have a method of refining it so that it 

 looks as well as the best imported molasses." 



Had these beginnings in the way or sub- 

 stitutes for foreign sugar been actively and 

 perseveringly followed up we can no longer 

 doubt that some thousands of millions of dol- 

 lars would have been saved to the country, 

 which have been spent in importations of 

 sugar and molasses. Now, this new industry 

 opened to our Southern planters. Northern 

 farmers and capitalists, offers such profits 

 from a crop of sorghum and cornstalks, and 

 from the extraction of their sugar, that our 

 home product of all grades, from the coarsest 

 browns to the finest whites, will soon turn 

 the balance of trade on sugar, and likewise in 

 rum and molasses, in our favor. 



The strongest argument in support of the 

 scheme of tlie annexation of the island of St. 

 Dommgo was the plea that it would render 

 us independent of Cuba in the important 

 article of sugar. This plea now falls to the 

 ground. The new machinery and processes 

 employed in the extraction and crystallization 

 of the sugar from the sap of sorghum and 

 cornstalks are simple and comparatively in- 

 expensive. Sorghum sugar, worth ten cents, 

 can now be produced, all costs included, at 

 less than four cents per pound. The ma- 

 chinery and implements employed include 

 grinding mills, drying pans and centrifugal 

 driers. They are now at Chicago, operated 

 by steam, and many persons are preparing to 

 follow the profitable example of the Chicago 

 firm already referred to, on the score of at 

 least a ton of sugar per day. There is room 

 in this work for hundreds of small factories 

 in the United States, for the nearer the mill 

 is to the sorghum and corn fields the cheaper 

 will be the carrying of the stalks to the 

 grinder. Any further light that may be de- 

 sired by the reader on this important subject 

 can be obtained at or from the agricultiu-al 

 department. The object of this communica- 

 tion is simply to herald the advent of a new 

 industry among our people; no moriis multi- 

 caulis fallacy, but a highly profitable field of 

 industry, equal to the gain of $200,000,000 to 

 the country, and wide as the zonejof sorghum 

 and Indian corn. 



THE QUESTION OF FRUIT CULTURE. 



Since the publication of my article of Feb- 

 11, on the subject of fruit culture in Berks 

 county, I am glad to see the .subject taken 

 hold of by so "practical a farmer as Casper 

 Hiller, and brought before our Agricultural 

 Society. It has not only awakened the pro- 

 gressive and thoughtful farmers, but others 

 testifj' that there are as remunerative crops to 

 be raised in fruit as tobacco produces. I met 

 one of our fiirmers a few days ago, who con- 

 firmed what was then written as to the value 

 of moisture on fruit, and explained, by a dia- 

 gram, the positions of several pear trees set 

 out on his farm, and the astonishing differ- 

 ence in a few years, "To me," he said, "it 

 was inexplicable at the time, but since read- 

 ing the article it is all very plain — moisture." 

 The Olive. 



I am told the olive will bear only when its 

 roots are in close proximity to constant mois- 

 ture, or when a system of irrigation is adhered 

 to. I have seen shellbark trees, just on tlie 

 verge of a stream, the nuts of which would 

 drop into the stream, to the annoyance of the 

 writer, bear annually, while others a distance 

 off, sometimes failed of a crop. 



I do wish Mr. Hiller had gone further in 

 the subject and given his opinion, based on 

 actual experiment, as to the picking of fruit. 

 Picking Fruit. 



My informant told me he allows no inex- 

 perienced persons to pick apples, as they are 

 likely to destroy the bud prepared for next 

 season's crop. There is reason in this, and 

 may account for the "off year" in many of 

 our kinds of apples. A few bear annually, 

 we know, but this does not by any reasoning 

 disprove the theory. For if half the buds 



produced apples the same season it would be 

 called an extraordinary crop. This is gener- 

 all observed on trees which bud prolifically. 

 Destruction of Forests. 

 Mr. Hiller might have|boldly asserted that to 

 the destruction of forests can be attributed 

 the failure of fruit crops. Not so much on 

 account of the protection against storms, but 

 on account of exposing the whole surface of 

 the earth during the summer to the scorching 

 rays of the sun, and often to the drying winds 

 of fall and spring. How many thousand little 

 springs bubbling from many hill sides in the 

 county are now seen no more ! What citi- 

 zen of Manor town.shipor Mountville does not 

 remember the large -ponds in Mr. Berger's 

 woods, south of Mountville ? They were con- 

 stant and never-failing until the forests were 

 cut away. Where are they now ? 



A Theory for Failures in Fruit Crops. 



How many thousand trees drew their suffi- 

 cient moisture from these constant and never- 

 failing reservoirs, no one can tell ! The sur- 

 face of our county having a sub-soil of cl5,y, 

 impervious to water, who can tell how many 

 trees were watered by the thousand si)rings 

 which are now no more, as they went mean- 

 dering silently between the mould and clay 

 strata before bursting forth from their con- 

 finement. 



Insects. 



The most destructive insects to fruit can be 

 readily destroyed b3' the methods used by Mr. 

 Grisemer as related in a former article. If 

 plums and such fruit are attacked, the best 

 plan yet discovered is to carefully pick up all 

 the fruit which drops to the ground before 

 ripe, and cast it into the oven. One person 

 ought not to do it, but every one who has 

 such fruit, and by destroying the larva we rid 

 ourselves of the pest. 



Preserving Cider. 



Some people have difliculty in keeping their 

 cider sweet and palatable, and most frequently 

 when they begin to use it. Mr. Gri.semer 

 says : " Let it stand until it has the desired 

 taste. Clarify with the white of an egg if 

 you want to. Tap off into the barrel you 

 wish to keep it in. Pour into the bung olive 

 or linseed oil, several tablespoonsful (sufficient 

 for a covering), and you can use it any time, 

 as the scum or coating produced by the oil 

 will prevent the air from changing the taste. 

 The oil will not be tasted, as it will not mix 

 and not escape until opposite the spigot." 



Fruit vs. Tobacco Growing. 

 I sincerely hope our people will begin to 

 give the subject of fruit culture more atten- 

 tion, and not allow themselves to run wild on 

 the subject of tobacco. That they are real- 

 izing handsome incomes from the production 

 of tobacco is a fact. To produce from one 

 hundred to five hundred dollars worth of to- 

 bacco on the acre is considered a pretty fair 

 compensation for labor ! But suppose your 

 orchard of one acre had received so much 

 labor as the tobacco, is it not reasonable to 

 suppose, j udging from the experience of others , 

 that the orchard would have produced 500 

 bushels of apples. They were worth more 

 than one dollar per bushel. Would it not be 

 more pleasant to see a boy eating your lus- 

 cious fruit, at a cent apiece, than to see him 

 smoking a " two for five," or taking a cliew 

 from afive cent plug ? Consider these things. 

 I do not intend to discourage its jiroduction ; 

 but before we go too far let us reason a little. — 

 B. , in New Ih-a. 



RESOURCES OF THE SOUTH. 



The following address was read by Hon. 

 Frederick Lauer at a recent meeting of the 

 Berks County Agricultural Society : 



To the request of the last monthly meet- 

 ing of the Berks County Agricultural and 

 Horticultural Society, to prepare an essay 

 giving the result of my recent trip through 

 the South, I take great pleasure in respond- 

 ing. Agriculture is the foundation of every 

 civilized government, and too great impor- 



