204 . TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



all new improved varieties. Witliin the past few years a number of now 

 varieties have been introdviiced. It ia important that these new varieties* 

 should be tested, besides, every one does not s^row fruit for profit. 



Th(! Chairman said: " I certainly concur with the gentlemen who recom- 

 mend a short list of varieties. If a. young farmer undertakes the whole 

 Assortment he will be c<infuaed and discouraged. I believe a dozen varie* 

 ties of apples sufficient. To tiial list he can add any well established new 

 sort fro?ii year to year." 



Distribution of Flower Seeds and Bulbs. 



Mr. Solon Robinson. — It may be recollected by readers of tlicse reports, 

 that last year Mr. Johnson, evincing a most noble liberality, coupled with 

 a desire to extend the cultivation of flowers among farmers, so as to make 

 their homes attractive and pleasant, offered to send without charg^e a 

 quantity of bulbs and flower seeds. In a few weeks after that letter was 

 published, he had received more than five hundred letters, and has since 

 sent off over 3,UU0 bulbs and packages of flower seeds of different varieties. 

 Although the tax resulting from this proposal has been somewhat onerous, 

 Mr. Johnson does not regret having made the offer. One of its results has 

 been to introduce to him several pleasant new acquaintances. 



Sorgo Syrup — How it is Manufactured in New Jersey. 



Mr. Robert Hopkins, Verona, Essex county, New Jersey, says the pro* 

 cess of making sorgo syrup may be as simple as it is with the real sugar 

 cane. In that case, as soon as the juice comes from the mill it is tempered 

 with. unslaked lime, and neither blood, eggs (jr milk is used. The kettles 

 should be four in number, graduated in size, the last not being more than 

 one-fourth the size uf the first. The juice, when sufficiently boiled, is dip- 

 ped into large wooden coolers, and the molasses left to granulate, and it is 

 afterward left to drain from the sugar. And he evidently thinks, from the 

 reading of his leter, that sorgo can be manufactured in the same manner. 

 He says : " I have never seen the Chinese cane grow, therefore know 

 nothing of its length or thickness, wherein consists the quantity of juice to 

 be obtained. I only am able to judge by the syrup I have seen." 



Sugar From Corn. 



Mr. David Sears, Magnoketa, Jackson county, Iowa, thinks the. state- 

 ment lately made in the Club about making twelve or sixteen quarts of 

 molasses from a bushel of corn almost incnnlible "Yet," he says, " when 

 I reflect that a multitude of statements, once apparently as incredible as 

 this may be, have now become established and familiar facts, it is with the 

 greatest anxiety I inquire and wait to know how so much molasses can be 

 made from meal — -nearly its own weight. Iowa, if not the best, is at least 

 one of the best States in the Union for corn raising. Not more than one- 

 tenth of the land is cultivated at all, and that tenth produces no more than 

 half what it would if all was reasonably well cultivated. It is now sold 

 in different localities from 25 to 50 cents per bushel. If so nmch and so 

 good molasses and sugar could be made from corn, it seems to nic as soon 

 as it was known there would be a great rush to occupy the opening for the 



