38 



THE ILLINOIS F^RMiER. 



Milk Sickness. 



Edit&r IlUiwis Farmer: 



Dear Sir: — In the January number of 

 your interesting paper, which greatly aids 

 me in keeping myself posted in regard to 

 my prairie friendB, I find on page six »n 

 article on the poisonous plants of Ohio, in 

 which the Eupatorium ageratoidet is ac- 

 cused of being the cause of milk-aickneas, 

 or at least of being injurious to cattle. Th« 

 article is credited to tho Ohio Farmer , but 

 I see it in your paper, and you appear to think 

 the theory of its causing the disease is 

 plausible. Many years ago I had a quantity 

 of this plant sent me, with a similar accusa- 

 tion. My inrestigations at that time satis- 

 fied me of its harmless pharacters. My 

 proof amounts to this, it grows abundantly 

 everywhere in half-cleared woodland, cattle 

 eat it frequently where no such disease ii 

 known. 



The account of Mr. Vermilya, in the Ohio 

 Agricultural Report, is yery circumstantial, 

 and he arrays testimony of many individuals 

 in confirmation of hia assertion, that animals 

 died after eating this weed; these I unwilling- 

 ly questionj but do know that my stock con- 

 itantly browse off this weed every autumn, 

 without injury. .•-/>-,' 



Further, I also know that the whole 

 genua is possessed of very little active prop- 

 erties; -some have a small amount of essen- 

 tial oil, and one, the common and well 

 known bonetet or thorough wort, is mildly 

 emetico-purgative and bitter; whereas, the 

 leading character of the disease referred to 

 is obstinate constipation, it is indeed drr/ 

 murrain in cattle and enteritis in the human 

 family, s condition of the system that may 

 arise quite independently of food. 



While in Decatur the other day, Dr. H. 

 C. Johns informed me that a Dr. Rice, of 

 Mowcqua, Illinois, treated the cases called 

 milk-eickncsB, very successfully with minute 

 doees of sweet oil, frequently repeated and 

 constantly increaaed as the patient could bear 

 it, until relieved by evacuation of the bowels. 

 This is no secret nostrum and perfectly safe. 



Beyond this I have nothing new to oflFer 

 on the subject of trembles, whicli I learned 

 to consider a myth, when, an ardent devDtee 

 of medicine, I set out in its pursuit, like 

 another Quixote, but for years could never 

 approach within two miles of the ignis 

 fatuus. W. 



The above is from the practical pen of 

 Dr. J. A. Warder, well known as an able 

 Botonist and Pomologlst. 



This most singular malady has thus far 

 baffled the Bontonist and Minerologist as to 

 its producing cause. It is a singular fact 

 that only certain districts are subject to its 

 attacks. The prairie everywhere is free 

 from it. It is no myth, we have been on 

 the farms subject to it, and in the houses 

 made sad with its deadly powers, and know 

 many who have been snatched from its fatal 

 grasp, but at the expense of impaired con- 

 stitutions. We have the same dread of it 

 as of the coiled rattle snake, whose bite is 

 death, without the use of remedies promptly 

 applied. Sweet oil is one of the best 



remedies for the snake bite, and now we 

 thank the Doctor on behalf of our readers 

 for the information of its value in this case 

 also. No family should be without a bottle 

 of sweet oil, not only for the above cases, but 

 in case of accidental poisoning. In the dis- 

 tricts where this malady abounds, a sure 

 preventative is in confining stock to culti- 

 vated grass lands after the first autumn frost. 



Ed. 



<•» . . 



For th* Illinois Fanntr. 



Chineie and African Sugar Cane. 



It will, we think, no longer be denied that 

 the Northern Sugar Cane is entitled to a 

 rank among the staple products of our lati- 

 tude. Its cultivation has ceased to be re- 

 garded as an experimental or a fancy enter- 

 prise, Year by year it has grown in the con- 

 fidence of the agriculturalist, until it has 

 achieved by its intrinsic merits a name and 

 a place in our list of staples. 



The amount of cane grown last season 

 was considerably greater than that of any 

 former year, while it is probable from present 

 indications that the amount which will be 

 planted the coming season will be greater 

 than that of all previous years. This as- 

 sumed increase is not attributable to any ex- 

 traordinary success attending the operations 

 of the last year, but rather to the fact that 

 the results were for the most part remuner- 

 ative, notwithstanding the season was a most 

 unpropitious one. The spring, as will be re- 

 membered, was wet and backward, delayed 

 the planting nearly a month. The plants 

 had then made but little progress against the 

 hard rain packed soil, when they were over- 

 taken by a protracted droughth. This ar- 

 rested their upward developcment while it 

 favored an extraordinary extension of root, 

 preparing them for a rank and vigorous 

 growth when the rains should return. But 

 the rains were delayed until the middle of 

 August, and until the time when the cane 

 should have been making its seed and con- 

 centrating its sacharine juices. Upon the 

 occurrence of rain the plants took on a 

 rapid growth, re-absorbed their sacharine 

 secretions and continued to grow and thrive 

 until cut down, or until arrested by the frost 

 early in October. The degree of maturity 

 or ripeness attained by the cane in the whole 

 period of six or seven weeks, from about the 

 middle of August, was less than is ordinar- 

 ily acquired in two or three weeks. The 

 canes when cut and pressed were abounding 

 with crude tap, or water loaded with the 

 vegetating elements. The sugar which had 

 not been absorbed by the rapid growing plant, 

 or that which had begun to be deposited at the 

 latest period, was contained in a great excess 

 of water; the juice exhibiting sacharine 

 proportions, in many cases as low as 5 ° and 

 6 ® Beaume. 



Yet notwithstanding the combination of 

 adverse circumstances, and the meager 

 quality of the juice, the product of the cane 

 in sirup was an ample compensation for all 

 the labor and expense incuned, and such as 

 to warrant the most sanguine expectations 

 from the crop in the future. 



The true science of cultivating the cane, 

 and the soils best adapted to its growth are 

 as yet undetermined. Those who know 



irothing of all that is supposed to be known, 

 are perhaps as well off as if they had conned 

 all the voluminous lore with which the sub- 

 jects have been invested. As a general 

 rule, the soil and cultivation required for 

 corn is adapted to cane, at least it will he safe 

 to pursue this treatment until a better way 

 shall have been demonstrated.. • >>,: ~ 



In the treatment of the ripe cane and of 

 the juice, much has been learned, though it 

 would be presumption to assume that we have 

 attained to anything more than a rudamental 

 knowledge of this department of the sub- 

 ject. Cane sugar is one of the highest and 

 most delicate organizations in the whole 

 vegetable kingdam. It exists in a combina- 

 tion of elements and conditions which can- 

 not be imitated or approached by synthesis. 

 Formed only in the alembic of nature, the 

 delicate aflBiniti«BTipolKwhich its atomic con- 

 stitinion deiiends, onceN, disturbed, it is de- 

 grwled nevm- to be restored. It readily 

 enough falls Into the stajies of starch, glucose 

 andVther Ipsa subtle combinations, but these 

 never^^*oclprocate, and \o power of art has 

 yet enable them to do so. For this reason tho 

 art of extracting crystalizable sugar from 

 sugar bearing plants and roots is attended 

 with many difficulties. Moreover, the sugar 

 is always found intimately associated with a 

 great variety of vegetable and inorganic 

 ■ubstances, and these substances occur in ever 

 varying quantities, qualities and conditions 

 which opposa by intricate and changeing 

 phases any fixed system of treatment. All 

 the resources of science were exhausted be- 

 fore sugar was successfully produced from 

 the beet root in Franoo. Ton yoftre elapsed 

 before the cultivation of cane and the pro- 

 duction of sugar was fully established in 

 Louisiana; and yet, in both these cases, 

 perseverance triumphed in the end. 



The Chinese and African canes transfcred 

 to our soils and peculiar climate, should be 

 expected to exhibit peculiarities of constitu- 

 tion differing from all other canes; and it 

 should not be surprising if the same cane 

 should behave quite differently in different 

 soils, and yet these peculiarities may all be 

 learned and the difficulti^ overcome. The 

 advantages and the honorable distinction of 

 a man's being his own sugar planter, is worth 

 more than all the trouble likely to be in- 

 curred. And we might certainly afford to 

 face the difficulties which the enterprise 

 presents, when we have the assurance in ad- 

 vance, that even if we fail in the highest re- 

 sults, pure crystalized sugar, we shall not fail 

 to reap more than a compensation for our 

 labor in sugar of only a little inferior quality 

 — pure clear sirup. 



Mr. Arthur Folsom, of Cherry Grove 

 Farm, near Pana, planted last season 150 

 acres in Sorgho and the different varieties of 

 Imphee cane, and erected machinery capa- 

 ble of handling 300 acres, which it is his 

 design to plant this season. 



Mr. Folsom had been for many years an 

 extensive sugar planter in the West Indies, 

 and his confidence in the productive value 

 of the Northern Cane was unbounded. 



His mill and apparatus was made by 

 Messrs, Hedges, Free & Co., Cincinnati, and 

 consisted of a three roller horizontal mill, 

 rolls three feet long, twenty inches diameter, 

 total weight 11,500 pounds. Engine, thirty 



