T'7^;"T.»^5WTO\f^'- . 



200 



THE ILLINOIS FAKMEK. 



past few years, devoted himself to the more 

 agreeable and quiet pursuits of horticulture, 

 and the plant before you only foreshadows 

 something better to come from his fruitful 

 experiments. 



Mr. Boyden's method of "hurrying up" 

 nature in producing plants from seed the 

 same season, struck me as curious and valu- 

 able, and will doubtless be new to many. 

 He picks the first ripened fruit, and having 

 mashed it upon sheets of paper and dried 

 it, he places the paper which contains the 

 seed under a tin pan in which he has pre- 

 viously placed a freezing mixture, when 

 having become frozen sufficiently, say in 

 about half a day, tiie seed is presumed to 

 have passed through a winter. The seed is 

 then planted, and in about six days the 

 young plants appear. Mr. B. has, in one 

 instance, with the seed of the "Alpine," 

 produced fruit in this manner the same sea- 

 son, but in all cases the fruit is obtained the 

 next season, thus saving one year by the 

 freezing process. 



Should any of your club or correspondents 

 desire to obtain plants from Mr. I3oyden's 

 variety, (and everybody should have them,) 

 they may be procured by addressing him 

 at Irving, New Jersey. 



Very respectfully, &c., 



MARCUS L. WARD. 



Directious for Sugar Making. 



Philadelphia, July 16, 1857. 

 Editor of the American Agriculiuri<it: 



Dear Sir: A reply to vour ioquiries in rela- 

 tion to the requisite instruction for arrangiiifr 

 mills, boilers, tanks, fitters, coolers, &c., and 

 then also, the "modus operandi," alter all are 

 ready, will be rather difiQcult to give in a m.iC- 

 ner satisfactory, even to ourselves, with the light 

 before na. We have spared no pains or time iq 

 collecting information to enable us &s far as 

 possible to give to others eng.iged iu the pioneer- 

 ing of ttiis new . sugar caue raovemcnt. "We 

 shall do the best we can. however, and urge 

 those engaged in it to be thorough in experi- 

 menting, try all the modes and means known, 

 and be sure to keep some careful record tor 

 future use. In the course of two weeks we ex- 

 pect to be in possession of the results of a test in 

 Florida, near Qrange Springs, which shall be 

 made public whatever it is. Mismanagement 

 has deprived us of the use of the cane we had 

 pknted in the hot house for early test. The 

 Bnt that will be worked besides that in Florida, 

 wi 1 be at Gov. Hammond's about the 10th or 

 15th of August. Col. Peters teils us that his 

 70 acres of ''Sorgho," is now about six feet 

 high and will be ready from Istto 15 h Septem- 

 ber; he has some earlier planted that he wUl 

 work about the 20th of August. Oo this he 

 uses a two horse mill just being shipped by us, 



and a steam power mill for his large crop. He 

 only designs, making syrup or molesses except, 

 perhaps a small experiment with sagar. 



The cane must be allowed to mature fully, not 

 attempting to work it until the seed is fully out 

 of the milk, and as some of the tillers will be 

 rather later than others it will no doubt be bet- 

 ter to throw them out for fodder than jeopardize 

 the rest. The leaves sliould be stripped oft' be- 

 fore cutting and the top cut off with the seed 

 some two and a half or three feet down, as there 

 is not much saccharine juice in the upper end. 

 The-, if your apparatus is ready, cut and grind 

 as fast as yon cut, and boil as fast as you grind, 

 since the less time the stalks or cut cane is ex- 

 posed the better. The juice, if concentrated by 

 the usual process will pass through two selves — 

 first No. 8 and then No. 16 set over a large tin 

 funnel immediately under the mill (which will be 

 set about three feet from the ground upon three 

 posts firmly bed ltd in the ground about three 

 feet.) This funnel is contracted to a pipe of 

 two inches diameter and running under ground 

 past tie horses track, and entering a tank either 

 lined with tin or painted thoroughly, and 

 varnished so as to be impervious to the juice and 

 easily washed clean, when left idle for even one 

 hour. The juice is raised by tin buckets or tin 

 or copper pump Irom this to a clarifi.r. This 

 may be of sheet iron No. 8, and about 12 inches 

 deep aud large enough to fill your first kettle, 

 and set higher with draw ofi pipe and stopcock 

 entering at the bottom. This clarifier is set bo 

 that the heat is applied under it after leaving 

 the range of boilers and may be shut off by 

 damper into another side flue, white you di?- 

 charg^e this pan. The heat beicg applied slow- 

 ly, a thick scum rises and when near boiling 

 you change da iijpes and draw off until the juice 

 begins to show sediment or scum, then clean the 

 pan and fill again, and so on. Now in this first 

 kettle you add liiiia well slacked and sifted, until 

 your juic? will not change the color of litmus pam- 

 per (which can be:; ot a' cny dm? store quite 

 clicapl^".) While the juir-e is ac d it will change 

 it to a reddish Lu.., d.^;d if thus boiled will 

 neilber granuluie nor k-ep swoet as rnolassfs. 

 With our two hor^e mil! ot rollers 17 inches 

 long, we use three boilers holditig 60, 40 and 20 

 gallons, with the latter iiumediate'.y over thr fire 

 and set with flaring wails or jjmbs, rising above 

 each about 6, 8 and 10 inches, asiu completily 

 cemented with water-lirce. Theiiisfcoi 20 gallon 

 boiler should be. higher ihau the 40 and that 

 above the 60, so that the scnm will run through 

 the gap iolc the next kettle behind successively. 

 The scum should also be thrown back whenever 

 accumulated into the hindmost kettle. If you 

 have no experience in testing the syrup in the 

 '•battery,''* a therm.jmetcr made for that purpose, 

 can be obtained in most large cities for a dollar 

 or so. It requires to be graduated up to say 

 250 ° , as about 240 ^ Fahrenhei' is coo.-,idered 

 the proper poiiu Sliould ihe heat rise above this 

 you must open your tire doors and throw over 

 the fire, an arinfull of begas se from the mill, and 

 then discharge the syrup as quickly as possible 

 and refill from the next kettle, thus continuing 

 successively. 



