262 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



attention to two remarkable cliang-es in the weather, and as indicated by 

 the barometer since that time, not according to the learned, but the rules 

 I send, viz.: On the 4th inst., the barometer rose in the evening- to 30.95 

 inches, the highest I have ever seen it. While at that point the air became 

 cloudy — indicating a humid atmosphere — and consequently stormy and 

 wet weather, because the barometer had nearly an inch to fall to reach 30, 

 and with the rapidity of the fall would be the increase of the storm. On 

 the 5th, at sunrise, thermometer 1 degrees, barometer 30.90, and by nine 

 o'clock barometer 30 87, Avind east, and snow storm commenced. It con- 

 tinued through the day, and was succeeded by a rain storm through the 

 night, wind hard from southward. Next morning, thermometer 47 degrees, 

 a change of 40 degrees, and barometer 30 inches, a change of nine-tenths 

 of an inch. 



"The other change commenced on the 19th instant; barometer 30.87, 

 and somewhat cloudy. On the 20th, 30.85, wind northeast, cloudy, air 

 humid, storm threatening. On the 21st the storm followed, which has been 

 reported as defeating the plans of General Burnside at Fredericksburg. 

 According to the rules laid down by the learned, we should have had fair 

 weather during the time of those storms, as the mercury did not fall below 

 the point marked fair on the barometer. The latter storm was indicated 

 by the barometer nearly two days before it commenced; and had Burnside 

 used a barometer, and known its true indications, he would not have 

 attempted such plans. 



"sorghum syrup. 



" Last year I made above 3,300 gallons of good thick syrup, from the 

 juice of the Chinese sugar cane, but have not succeeded yet in graining it 

 sufficiently to make our own sugar. We think the syrup much superior to 

 New Orleans molasses. It is of a lighter color and more like honey. I 

 used Cook's evaporators, but, as you live further north, a more detailed 

 account may not interest you. The African cane will come to maturity as 

 easily with you as the Chinese will with us; and, judging from experiments 

 made with both, I believe where they will ripen their seed they will be 

 among our most profitable crops. 



"COTTOX IN NEW JERSEY. 



" Late last spring I planted a small lot of cotton seed received from the 

 Patent Office. The result was 160 pounds good ginned cotton to the acre. 

 Many of the bolls did not open as they would have done if I had planted 

 early. The green bolls I pulled off, and, after drying them some, took the 

 cotton out. The superintendent of the Gloucester cotton factories, to whom 

 I presented a sample, pronounced the staple good and strong. It was 

 then worth seventy cents, but is worth more now. At the present price of 

 cotton it must be one of the most remunerating crops in this latitude. I 

 intend to plant largely if I can procure seed. 



" JUTE. ■ 



" I planted last spring a small lot of seed of the jute plant — a species 

 of the chorchorus — from the fiber of which the gunny-bags are made; 

 but the plant comes up too weakly to succeed well where there is foul seed 

 in the laud. Mine was a partial failure, but I saved some seed to try again. 



