163. 



THE ILLINOIS FAEMER. 



293 



nnow the grain and deliver it in bags at one 

 e ration. 



All these machines are of comparatively modern 

 rention, the oldest scarcely dating back thirty 

 irs. The threshing machine of Messrs. Pitts 

 .y be considered the first portuble machine by 

 ieh threshing and cleaning could be done suc- 

 isfully at one operation. The writer of this 

 ;icle was one of a committee appointed to ex..m- 

 ( this machine when it was first brought before 

 3 public, at Wintorop, Maine, in 1832 As might 



supposed, it was then in an imperfect state to 

 lat it is under the improvements which its intel- 

 ent inventors have added. Several years since 

 ; manufacture of this machine was established 

 Western New York. One of the leading wheat 

 )wers of that section, at a public meeting, gave 

 as his opinion, that in ten years this machine 

 d saved to the State of New York a million of 

 liars. Of late years this machine has been man- 

 ictured at various points in the West, and is 

 w met with in almost every part of that fertile 

 :;ion. 



The successful use of mowing machines can 

 rdly be said to embrace fifteen years. In 1848, 

 itchum made the first public exhibition of his 

 ichine before the New York State Agricultural 

 ciety at Buffalo. This was the pioneer mowing 

 Lchine. Reaping machines have been in use in 

 s country a little lunger. McCormick and Hus- 

 .' led off with these. Occasionnlly their machines 

 re tried for grass, but not with much success. 



was not till the International Exhibition at 

 ndon, in 1851, that the use of reaping raaehinas 

 ly be said to have been fairly initiated. The 

 umph of McCormick at that Exhibition is well 

 own. On the subsequent history of reaping and 

 ler agricultural machines, we have not space to 

 large 



• <•» 



Sugar and Molasses in the West. 



Mr. Sanford Howard, one of the editors of the 

 )ston Cultivator, in a late visit to the west, writes 



his paper as follows : 



Chicago, June 30, 1863. 

 Among the various enterprises of which the 

 'eat West has lately been the theatre, few are of 

 ire importance in reference to the welfare of the 

 ople, than the production of a substitute for the 

 gar and molasses which was formerly obtained 

 jm the South. The first trials of the Chinese 

 gar cane were made here in 1855 ; but it was 

 it till the following year that it was cultivated 



a sufficient extent to afford much of a test as to 

 e adaptation of the plant to this section, or as 



its capability for producing sirup or sugar. On 

 e breaking out of the war, the usual source of 

 pply for these articles was cut off by the obstruc- 

 )ns which the rebels threw in the way of naviga- 

 ig the Mississippi river, and the general non-in- 

 rcourse with the lower country. Whatever might 

 ive been done under ordinary circumstances, the 

 ople now felt the necessity of turning their atten- 

 DU to the production of aa article which was 

 garded as indispensable. In reference to this, it 

 ems almost like a special Providence that the 

 tiinese sugar cane should have been introduced 

 the time it was. Its culture was engaged in 

 :tensively in 1861, and with no better facilitieg 



than those with which every farm house is provi- 

 ded, a large quantity of sirup was produced that 

 year — the quality, of course, varying according to 

 the skill of the makers, and other causes, but on 

 the whole so good that it was used in the families 

 of farmers in place of the Southern molasses. 

 Last year, a still larger extent of land was planted 

 with the cane, and the quantity of sirup increased — 

 Illinois producing not less than 2,000,000 of gallons, 

 and Iowa 3,000,000. 



The capacity of the country to produce sirup to 

 any extent, has thus been demonstrated. But to 

 make a suitable article for export or for sale in 

 market, it was necessary that it should be uniformly 

 of good quality, and this cannot at present be 

 attained in ordinary household manufacture wwing 

 to various causes — as the variation in the quality 

 of the cane grown on different soils, the quality 

 of the juice according to the stage in which the 

 cane is cut, the care and skill applied in preparing 

 and grinding the cane, the boiling, and the general 

 management of the juice, etc. This importamt 

 desideratum hap, however, been attained to a good 

 degree by the refiaement of the sirup. 



In company with Mr. Emery, of the Prairie 

 Farmer, I have lately visited the Chicago Sugar 

 Refiner?, which is under the superintendence of 

 W. H. 'Belcher, Esq. In the winter of 1861-2. 

 Mr. B. made some experiments in regard to refining 

 the sorghum <>r Chinese cane sirup. The results 

 were so satisfactory, that in the autumn of 1862 

 and the following winter, Mr. B. refined about 6000 

 gallons. Samfil*s of the unrefined and of the 

 refined sir*ij have been shown me. The former ie 

 just in the condition in which it is made at the 

 farm houses, and presents, as before intimated, 

 great variation in quality. A few samples are 

 light colored, clear, and of good flavor ; but most 

 of them are dark, with more or less impurities, 

 and with various disagreeable flavors. The best 

 of the refined is fully equal to any sirup I ever 

 tasted, not excepting Stewart's best rt fined. The 

 price of the unrefined has been from 30 to 45 cents 

 per gallon ; of the refined from 45 to 60 cents. 

 There is an average loss, by measure, in the process 

 of refining, of from 10 to 12 per cent. 



The company above mentioned is now preparing 

 to refine 30,000 gallons of sirup next fall and win- 

 ter. To this end the company has planted 400 

 acres in cane on its own account. One induce- 

 ment to do this has been the difficulty of obtaining 

 large quantities of sirup of uniform quality. Mr. 

 Belcher hopes by having a large quantity of cane 

 under his own supervision, that he can produce 

 sirup of such quality and in such quantity as will 

 enable him to present it in market as an article of 

 commerce, meeting a ready sale. Mr. B. purposes 

 to grind the cane and boil down the juice about 

 one-half, on the field ; then barrel it and take it to 

 the refinery, where the process will be completed. 



There are several varieties of the cane, known 

 under the names Chinese, African, (or Iniphee,) 

 Otaheitan, etc. Mr. Belcher is cultivating ten 

 varieties this season, and will probably be able, 

 when the juice has been made into sirup, to give 

 some more positive information than has hitherto 

 been obtained in regard to the merits of the differ- 

 ent kinds. It seems probable that they all belong 

 to a single species — as they do not differ more 

 than the different varieties of Indian corn — and 

 all readily mix with each other, and also with 



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