46 THE CHINESE SUGAR-CANE. 



it is not necessary to have these large boilers 

 except when it is intended to make large quan- 

 tities of syrup. 



We will give further results of experiments 

 made at the South, and quote from the Southern 

 Cultivator^ for October, 1856 : "In the winter 

 of 1844-5, the junior editor of this journal 

 obtained from Boston a few ounces of seed of 

 this plant, — Chinese sugar-cane, — then newly 

 imported from France. It came very highly 

 recommended as a sugar-producing and forage 

 plant ; but, having a vivid recollection of many 

 previous disappointments with new-fangled no- 

 tions, we concluded to test it cautiously and 

 moderately. In order, however, to give it a fair 

 chance, we distributed small parcels, per mail, to 

 friends in various portions of Georgia and the 

 adjoining states, and planted for ourselves only 

 seven or eight hills, in a poor spot in our garden. 

 At first it came up like grass, or Egyptian 

 millet, and grew off slowly and weakly ; but in 

 a few weeks it began to shoot upward, and in 

 less than three months attained the height of 

 eight or ten feet, with large and well-filled heads 

 of seeds, somewhat resembling broom-corn, but 

 covered with a black husk, or chaff. Passing by 

 it one day, when the seeds were nearly or quite 



