PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS* CLUB. 195 



degrees in the poorest. Sorghum cane does not deteriorate by cultivation in 

 this country, only as it hybridizes with broom corn, or something else. 

 The stalks of such grow much larger, and contain, when ripe, little or no 

 juice, and are entirely wortiiless for syrnp. Have seen fields of cane half 

 of which was a hybrid with broomcorn. It mixes in the seed the previous 

 year. I tried a new importation, the last year, planted it, and compared it 

 with that from seed from a former importation: it was no better. Sorgo 

 cane is not poisonous; have made hogs very fat on the green skimmings 

 alone; have lost some hogs by eating too much when first fed to them, but 

 not afterward. Have lost hogs by eating too much whey — but who would 

 infer from that that whey was poisonous? The husk of the cane is too 

 sharp and liard for cattle, but they will eat some while it is sweet. Have 

 seen their mouths bleed in their efforts to masticate it. Had some cane 

 topped and bladcd by calves after it had been blown down without any 

 injury to them. The seed makes good feed for stock, poultry included. 

 Have known above fifty bushels of seed per acre. The bagasse was 

 wortli last year $15 per ton at the paper mills. Have tried Indian corn 

 stalks and watermelons for syrup. The saccharine matter in both is very 

 small compared with that in the sorgo cane, and the syrtip is very inferior. 

 The steam rising from the evaporator while boiling them was almost sickr 

 cuing. 



" MUCK AS A FERTILIZER. 



"A few years ago we had a water course cut twenty-four feet wide, six 

 feet deep, and three miles long, through the best of tide-meadow mud mixed 

 with mud to the bottom, which has gone down as the country subsided and 

 new mud from sediment made over it. I hauled three j^ears ago last sum- 

 mer one thousand loads of this mud and spread it on a field of twelve acres, 

 or eighty loads per acre. The same year I spread a strip with green sand 

 marl, a rod wide across the poorest part of the same field. The mud was 

 spread on a clover sod after harvest and left one year to pulverize. I then 

 plowed it all under with the clover for wheat. The marl has about doubled 

 every crop I have had oft" of that strip, but I have yet to see the first benefit 

 arising from the muck." 



"DELAWARE AND JERSEY COMPARED. 



"A member of your Club replies to a correspondent that Delaware is 

 better than South Jersey for planting a vineyard, but does not assign any 

 reasons for such a decision; does not specify any particular part of either 

 State. If he means to call Vineland, South Jersey, with its two or three 

 inches of soil, and that clay intermixed with fine i^ ravel sufficient to make 

 their roads good turnpikes, and compare that with some parts of Delaware, 

 I can agree with him full}', having traveled over much of Delaware, and 

 visited Vineland recently. When there I witnessed the poor clay and 

 gravel from the cellars being spread on the land to enrich or give it fertil- 

 ity, at the suggestion of agricultural writers perhaps that Vineland was 

 once an ocean bed, and the cultivators had only to plow or dig deep to 

 reach the phosphates ! I landed at the depot and set off on foot on a stroll 



