250 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



dicino. AYalkinjj over an elevated portion of a road one day last summer, 

 I heard a rustling in the grass and shrubbery in the ravine beside me, and 

 forth came the squirrel with a little brown snake eight or ten inches long, 

 and perched himself on a fiat stone in a wall near by, and I watched him 

 until tlie snake was consumed." 



Sorghum — Its Cultivation and Manufacture — It will Make 



Sugar. 



Mr. S. L. Denney, Christiana, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, claims 

 that he has made a valuable improvement in sugar' cane mills, by which 

 the feeding is easily regulated. 



Sorghum Culture. ~ 



Mr. D. Petit, Salem, Now Jersey, writes of his experience in sorghum 

 culture, as follows : 



" In your discussions of December 13, Professor Mapes says : 'There is 

 no doubt that sugar can be made from sorghum ; that Mr. Jos. S. Levering of 

 Philadelphia, several years ago fully demonstrated the fact. He published 

 a pamphlet detailing the whole process,' and adds: ' The trouble generally 

 with farmers is, they do not conduct the process with sufficient rapidity. 

 The exposure of the syrup to the atmosphere to a great extent destroys the 

 power of crystalization All the manipulations of the syrup lessen that 

 power: The more it is stirred the less sugar it will produce, &c. Now I 

 apprehend the principal aim of your discussions is to elicit and publish the 

 truth. The Professor says : ' Let it be the duty of this Club to send out 

 light upon the subject.' My object in now writing is to elicit the truth, 

 and with all due deference to the opinions of the Professor, T will ofl'er a 

 fow facts in my experience, which ' are stubborn things' where they come in 

 contact with preconceived opinions. 



" I received one of the first packages of sorghum seed sent out from the 

 latent OfBce, planted them, and before the seed was fully ripe, had some 

 juice pressed out and placed in a small vessel which was placed in a vessel 

 of boiling water to evoporate. Consequently it was a long time in evaporat- 

 ing, for it never boiled, and we did not get rid of the green matter; and yet 

 that syrup on exposure to the air. formed crystals — grained fully as well as 

 any I ever had. In using Cook's evaporator much of the juice and syruj) re- 

 mains on tlie pan only while passing from one end of the pan to the other, 

 constantly moving. I used a No. 7 pan 15 feet long. The process cannot 

 be performed in less time. If the current, being thin on the pan, is stopped 

 running while boiling rapidly, it will burn. The running motion is tliere- 

 fore the great secret of rapid evaporation. We have run off fifteen gallons 

 of good syrup within an hour, and evaporated, at the same time, ninety 

 gallons of juice, with one pan and only one fire. Wben making syrup, in 

 the Fall of 1863, the drippings on the outside of the vessels used soon be- 

 came thick with sugar, which shows that exposure to the air is not detri- 

 mental to crystalization. I placed ten gallons in an open vessel in a warm 

 room to crystalize, and not till after several weeks did tlie crystal show 

 but slightly, and then those formed first were in the skum on the surface; 

 but frequently stirring and mixing with the syrup seemed to accelerate the 



