. •- ■ K- 



190 



THE ILLIISrOIS F^HMEH. 



I put it iuto my sugar mould and hung it up. 

 All the encouragement I had for about two 

 weokri was, it suaoit like real good sugar, and 

 had a yellowish appearance on the top. In 

 time, however, much of it granulated. 



jMy second trial was a larger batch, and in 

 some respects worked more to my mind, — 

 having laid aside the thermometer and follow- 

 ed iippcaraucos of the syrup, or rather, being 

 guided by common sense. In my third trial, 

 I put iu more bone-black, and was better 

 pleu-ed with the result. The syrup com- 

 menced iXiaQulatini; in 24 hours. 



I'ermit me to sa}', my greatest difficulty is 

 to know the exact point to stop boiling. If 

 there is too much water in the syrup it will 

 not granulate. If too little it will all stick 

 together, and the molasses will not separate. 

 I have tried to separate the molasses both in 

 Jackson's and Lovering's methods. Neither 

 work well with me. Thesugarin my experi- 

 ments, mostly, settles at the bottom, being 

 heavierthan tii3 molasses; neither will the mo- 

 lassos pass through it much. 



I find, siuce I last wrote you, that I c»n 

 pour oft" the molaijses, full of grains of sugar 

 and find considerable sugar at the bottom, 



J \?i.>h others, like myself, would give all the 

 information they possess. I have been wait- 

 ing to hear froiu others that I might add to my 

 own small stock of knowledge. Had I every- 

 thing on hand to do with, I would as soon un- 

 dertake to make sugar from the Imphee, as 

 molasses. It will be but few years before 

 sugar making from the various canes will be 

 as common as making sugar from the maple 

 juice. I have now done the best I can for 

 you, and I close these remarks by soliciting 

 every one, farmers and all, to contribute their 

 mitcB to our sweet interests. 



Yours respectfully, 



E. KIMBALL. 



concerning the 



FeeJing Stofk in Winter. 



Samuel Hale, of Medina county, Ohio 

 gives the following account of some experi- 

 ments in feeding his stock in winter. Prac- 

 tical experiments of this kind are of more 

 value to the farmer than theories. 



Mr. Hale says : 



For several years I fed my eoru in the ear, 

 and with stabling and the best of care, could 

 add but little to the weight of my cattle 

 during the winter, and I had nearly given up 

 feeditig cattle, as I found that I could not 

 make it pay. ]Jut three years ago I fell in 

 with a "Little Giant Stock Mill," and liked 

 its operation, procured one and set it to work 

 — -and, during the first winter, I ground and 

 fed some twelve hundred bushels of ears of 

 corn to my horses, cattle and sheep", and 

 never wintered the same as well and as cheap 

 as I did that winter. The next winter I 

 commenced again in a small way to stall feed, 

 the r»3sult of which fully satisfied me that 

 two bushels ground with the cob, was worth 

 more three fed without grinding, to all kinds 

 of stock. 



The last winter, being the third of my ex- 

 perimenting, I not only ground with the cob, 

 but also cooked with Hedges, Free & Co.'s 

 Agricultural Steamer, about 1000 bushela 

 of ears of corn, which I fed to oxen, horses, 

 sheep, fatting hogs, milch cows, and six 

 head of fattening cattle. The result fully satis- 



fied me that one-half the corn fed in this way 

 would put more flesh upon horned cattle, hogs 

 or horses, than the whole would, fed in the 

 ear. The facts and figui 

 beef cattle, I will give as follows : 



Five two year old steers and one cow ten 

 years old, worth not to exceed, on the 1st of 

 J)ecember, $25 per head. During the month 

 of December they were fed in the field with 

 corn stalks; on the 1st of January thej were 

 driven to the yard and lay to stacks of wheat 

 and clover straw — during the month of Janu- 

 ary they were fed once a day in the field with 

 corn stalks. This embraces the whole of 

 their feeding and care through the winter, 

 excepting their mush, which was fed to them 

 regularly from the 1st of January to the 1st 

 of May, as follows : Each trough being fill- 

 ed at night, and also in the morning, with a 

 half pail full of mush — after eating of which 

 they could retire at their leisure to the yard. 

 Xn order to come at the footing, I weighed 

 one hundred pounds of the meal when dry, 

 which made fourteen pails of mush. The 

 corn fed was mostly soft corn, and badly 

 moulded, as the most of the cora was in this 

 section last season, and was not worth more 

 than half price. The footing up then, is as 

 follows : Seven pounds of corn and cob meal 

 per head, per day, for one hundred and twen- 

 ty days, eight hundred and forty pounds; at 

 seventy pounds per bushel, twelve bushels of 

 soft corn at twenty-five cents per bushel, §3; 

 corn stalks and straw, say $3; cost of produce 

 per head, 86. 



The cattle were sold about the 1st of May, 

 to John Mallery, for the New York market, 

 at $3 02 J per hundred, live weight, and their 

 average weight was one thousand one hun- 

 dred and ninety-four and one-sixth pounds — 

 bringing me in cash, per head, 343 28. In 

 my case it would be more just to give my 

 cattle a handsome credit for converting my 

 straw into manure, than to charge them 

 with it. 



Some may suppose that the trouble of 

 grinding and cooking might still use up the 

 margin. The facts are as follows : I used 

 to set a boy eleven years old at grinding in 

 the morning with two horses, and with what 

 assistance I could render him while attend- 

 ing to my steamer, he would have fifty bush- 

 els (my usual weekly allowance,) ground by 

 noon — and during the same time I would 

 have half of the same cooked, reserving the 

 balance for another cooking. 



I think the trouble and expense of feeding 

 cattle in this way, is much less than stabling 

 them on hay; at the same time you fatten 

 your cattle, instead of their losing fro\n one- 

 fourth to one-half of the previous summer's 

 growth, as they usually do with the best care, 

 on hay. 



It is a fact worthy of note, that sufficient 

 money is lost by the stock growers of Ohio, 

 in allowing their cattle to fall away in win- 

 tor, to pay all their taxes, and support all 

 their schools and churches of every grade and 

 denomination. 



Every farmer should make his market stock 

 grow every day, from the time it comes into 

 the world until it goes to market, and in so 

 doing will save at least one year's time, and 

 one-third of the feed in growing a steer to 

 weigh twelve hundred pounds, or in raising 

 a calf to be worth $100. I know of no way 



this can be done so nicely as by raising more 

 corn, grinding and cooking the same with the 

 cob, which makes perfectly safe feed for any 

 kind of stock, in sufficient quantity to secure 

 the desired result — having fed over three 

 thousand bushels of ground corn and cobs in 

 the last three years, to all kinds of stock, and 

 not having a single creature of any kind ail- 

 ing in the least, while feeding the same, I am 

 fully satisfied there does not exist in the vege- 

 table world more wholesome food for stock 

 than corn and cob meal. The virtue of the 

 cob, I believe, consists more in its medicinal 

 properties than in the trifling amount of nu- 

 triment it contains. 



-••• 



Sorgho as food for Stock. 



Editor Farmer: — Among the uses that 

 can be made of the Sorgho is food for stock. 

 Cattle eat the blades readily and the stalks 

 until their mouths become sore. To feed the 

 stalks out to them, therefore, they should be 

 cut into small pieces with the straw cutter, 

 when they will be eaten up clean and will be 

 as valuable food to them as corn. Hogs will 

 at all times live on the stalks; and will fatten 

 on them. The seed of the cane, which will 

 amount to some forty bushels an acre, is as 

 good for hogs as corn. This is experience. 

 Cattle will be poisoned by eating cane seed 

 just as much as they will be with corn. I 

 have seen a good deal in the newspapci-s about 

 feeding cane and the seed to stock, and I 

 thought I would add my little experience in 

 the matter. 



November 20. M. 



Note. — ^We add to the above an extract 

 from a communication published in the 

 Georgia i-hronicle : 



''This is my third season of cultivating 

 the Chinese cane. I have seven acres of it 

 this year, five of which I planted for the ex- 

 press purpose of feeding it green and dry to 

 horses, cattle and hogs; and since the 1st of 

 June until now, I have been feeding it daily 

 to those animals. My calves have run daily 

 upon two acres, sown broadcast, since that 

 time. My cows and cows and oxen while sick 

 with the "black tongue" were fed daily with 

 it. My oxen, when at work, are fed with it, 

 horses ditto. My hogs are daily fed with the 

 cane now, and are in fine growing order. I 

 intend to fatten my pork upon the cane, as 

 not only good feed, but equal to corn for the 

 same purpose ! These facts can be attested 

 by my neighbors, for they know all about 

 them. After three years experience with 

 the Chinese cane, I hare come to the follow- 

 ing conclusions in regard to it, and I give 

 them for what they are worth — not caring a 

 "bawbee" whether or not they are endorsed 

 by the people : 



1. For forage, either green or dry, there is 

 no plant so valuable. 



2. More grain can be made on the same land 

 than oats will produce, with an analytic value 

 as food of one-third over oats I 



3. For hogs, it is next to corn in every par- 

 ticular. 



4. For syrup, it is equal to any cane, and 

 for sugar ditto. 



This is no more speculation — I have tried 

 the forage, made syrup and sugar, and for the 

 analysis of its value as feed, am indebted to 

 Prof. Lee. 



If the Patent Office had done noother thing 



