202 AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 



spoonful of salaeratus, all well mixed with syrup before it is 

 scalding hot. I then make and keep a moderate fire directly 

 under the caldron until the scum is all raised ; then skim it 

 off clean, taking care not to let it boil so as to rise in the 

 kettle before I have done skimming it. I then sugar it off, 

 leaving it so damp that it will drain a little. I let it remain 

 in the kettle until it is well granulated. I then put it into 

 boxes, made smallest at the bottom, that will hold from 50 to 

 70 Ibs., having a thin piece of board fitted in two or three 

 inches above the bottom, which is bored full of small holes 

 to let the molasses drain through, which I keep drawn off by 

 a tap through the bottom. I put on the top of the sugar in 

 the box two or three thicknesses of clear damp cloth, and 

 over that a board well fitted in so as to exclude the air from 

 the sugar. After it has done or nearly done draining, I dis- 

 solve it and sugar it off again, going through the same process 

 in clarifying and draining as before." 



When sap is not immediately boiled, a small addition of 

 lime water should be made to check fermentation, which pre^ 

 vents the granulation of the syrup. A single tree has yielded 

 in one day, 24 gallons of sap, making over 7 1-4 Ibs. of sugar; 

 and in one season it made 33 Ibs. Trees will give an aver- 

 age of 2 to 6 Ibs. in a single season. 



TOBACCO (Nicoliana.) 



This narcotic is a native of North America and has been 

 an object of extensive use and cultivatiou in this country 

 since the first settlement of Virginia in the latter part of the 

 16th century. It formed for a long time the principal export 

 from that colony and Maryland. It is still cultivated there 

 and has become an object of considerable attention in the 

 middle and western states and to some extent in the northern. 



THE SOIL may be a light loamy sand, or it may be allu- 

 vial, well drained and fertile, new land free of weeds and 

 lull of saline matters is best suited to it, and next to this is a 

 rich grass sod which has long remained untilled. The seed 

 should be sown in beds which should be kept clean, as the 

 plant is small and slow of growth in the early stages of its 

 existence and is easily smothered by weeds. If not newly 

 cleared, the land should be burned with a heavy coating of 

 brush. 



CULTIVATION The beds should be well pulverized, and 

 the seed sown at the rate of a table spoonful to every two 

 square rods. The seeds are so minute, that sowing evenly is 



